Which Hesiod poem contains the main surviving account of Pandora’s creation?

Hesiod’s Works and Days contains the main surviving account of Pandora’s creation.

Works and Days is a didactic Greek poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod. It combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining why human life includes labor, hardship, and suffering. The Pandora episode appears in this broader discussion of the human condition, following the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus over fire.

Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but the two poems do not provide identical levels of detail. The Theogony includes a shorter reference to the woman and the evils associated with her. Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative of her construction, arrival, and opening of the vessel.

Readers often identify the Theogony as the source because it is another famous Hesiodic poem. It is relevant, but Works and Days is the key text for the commonly retold Pandora story. The poem’s title also distinguishes it from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, which do not contain this central version.