Hesiod is traditionally credited with writing the earliest surviving Greek account of Pandora.
Pandora appears in two poems attributed to Hesiod: the Theogony and Works and Days. In the Theogony, she is connected with the creation of women and the punishment of humanity. Works and Days gives the fuller narrative in which the gods create Pandora and send her to Epimetheus.
The story is sometimes called Pandora’s box, but the earliest Greek version describes a pithos, a large storage jar. The word “box” became established later through translation and retelling. Hesiod’s account also differs from modern versions because Pandora is presented as part of Zeus’s punishment for humanity after Prometheus stole fire.