Which Hesiod poem gives the fuller ancient version of Pandora opening the jar?

Works and Days gives the fuller ancient version of Pandora opening the jar. The poem is attributed to Hesiod and combines mythology with advice about farming, justice, labor, and proper conduct.

Its Pandora episode explains why human life contains hardship. Zeus arranges Pandora’s creation after Prometheus benefits humans, and the story describes the jar whose contents escape into the world. The same poem also preserves the detail that hope remains inside.

Hesiod’s Theogony mentions Pandora as well, but Works and Days is the principal source for the extended narrative familiar today. Neither ancient poem uses the modern English expression “Pandora’s box”; that wording comes from later translation and cultural transmission.

Works and Days is therefore more than a myth collection. Its Pandora story supports the poem’s broader concern with labor, suffering, justice, and the conditions of human life. This context helps explain why the episode is not simply a standalone tale about curiosity.