Which Hesiod poem gives the best-known account of Pandora and her container?

Hesiod’s Works and Days gives the best-known account of Pandora and her container.

Works and Days is an ancient Greek didactic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod, who probably lived around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining the difficult condition of human life.

The poem presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire. It describes her creation by the gods, her marriage to Epimetheus, and the opening of the storage jar that releases troubles. It also includes the myth of the Five Ages of Man.

Hesiod’s Theogony mentions Pandora and the consequences of Prometheus’s deception as well, but Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative associated with the container. Neither poem uses the modern English phrase “Pandora’s box,” and the original object is generally identified as a pithos.