According to Greek myth, why did Zeus send Pandora to humanity?

Zeus sent Pandora to humanity to punish humans for Prometheus’s theft of fire. Prometheus had tricked Zeus in a sacrificial dispute and then stolen fire from Olympus, allowing mortals access to a divine resource.

Zeus answered with a countermeasure: he ordered the gods to create Pandora, endowed her with alluring and deceptive traits, and sent her to Epimetheus. Her arrival and the opening of the vessel brought suffering into human existence. The myth therefore frames Pandora as part of a larger conflict between Zeus and Prometheus.

This explanation belongs to Hesiod’s mythic worldview, not a historical account of technological progress. Later writers often portray Prometheus as a heroic benefactor, which can make Zeus’s punishment seem especially severe compared with the older poem’s emphasis on divine authority.