Hesiod wrote Works and Days, the ancient Greek poem that contains the Pandora myth.
Works and Days is a didactic poem concerned with farming, justice, labor, morality, and the proper organization of life. Its account of Pandora appears within a story explaining why human beings experience hardship after Prometheus steals fire for them.
Hesiod is traditionally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. He is usually discussed alongside Homer as one of the earliest known Greek poets, although their works have different purposes and styles.
Pandora also appears in Hesiod’s Theogony, but Works and Days provides the fuller narrative involving the container and the release of evils. The poem is not a modern novel or a collection of myths; it is a verse work with practical and moral instruction at its center.