Which Hesiod poem contains the earliest surviving literary account of Pandora?

Hesiod’s Works and Days contains the earliest surviving literary account of Pandora. The poem is an ancient Greek work combining farming advice, moral instruction, mythology, and reflections on justice.

In its mythological passages, Zeus punishes humanity after Prometheus gives people fire. The gods create Pandora and send her to Epimetheus with a container whose opening releases evils into the human world. This account establishes the narrative that later became known in English as Pandora’s box.

Hesiod also discusses the successive Ages of Man, including the famous Golden Age, and tells the story of the Five Ages. Theogony, another poem associated with Hesiod, focuses mainly on the origins and genealogy of the gods rather than presenting the full Pandora episode. The surviving text of Works and Days is generally dated to the archaic period of Greek literature.