Which Hesiod poem gives the fullest account of Pandora opening her vessel?
Answer
Works and Days
Hesiod’s Works and Days gives the fullest account of Pandora opening her vessel.
The poem describes Pandora’s creation, her arrival among humans, and the opening of the pithos that releases diseases and other troubles. It also explains why hope remains inside after Pandora closes the vessel.
Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, but that poem provides a shorter account of her creation and does not tell the jar-opening episode in the same detail. The Works and Days passage is therefore the primary literary source for the best-known form of the myth.
Works and Days is more than a collection of myths. It is a didactic poem about farming, justice, labor, and proper conduct, and the Pandora story appears within its explanation of why human life includes hardship.