Hesiod wrote the earliest surviving literary versions of the Pandora myth. His poems Works and Days and Theogony preserve the ancient Greek accounts that connect Pandora with Zeus, Prometheus, and humanity’s troubles.
Hesiod probably lived in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, although the exact dates are uncertain. He is one of the earliest Greek poets whose works survive in substantial form, alongside Homer.
The two poems do not tell exactly the same version. Works and Days provides the fuller narrative, while Theogony includes a more compressed account of the woman created as a punishment. This difference shows that Greek myths could circulate in multiple poetic forms rather than having one fixed canonical text.
Later artists, translators, and writers reshaped Hesiod’s story. The modern expression “Pandora’s box,” for example, reflects later translation history rather than the wording of the earliest Greek account.