Works and Days gives the longer account of Pandora’s creation and the release of human troubles. Hesiod includes the story while explaining why hardship became part of human life after Prometheus’s theft of fire.
The poem describes the gods preparing Pandora, her arrival among humans, and her opening of the storage jar. It also says that hope remained inside after the evils escaped. The Theogony contains an earlier, shorter version of the episode, but it focuses more briefly on Pandora’s creation and her connection with Epimetheus.
Works and Days is not only a mythological poem. It also offers advice about farming, justice, work, seafaring, and proper behavior. Its Pandora episode therefore belongs to a wider discussion of why people must labor and how moral disorder affects communities.