In Greek mythology, Pandora is traditionally identified as the first woman. Hesiod presents her creation as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus gave people fire.
The story appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, where the gods contribute different qualities or gifts to a woman fashioned by the gods. She is sent to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, despite Prometheus’s warning not to accept gifts from Zeus.
Calling Pandora the first woman is a summary of the Greek literary tradition, not a detail shared by every later retelling. Modern versions often focus on the opened container and the escape of evils, while omitting the myth’s earlier setting: the conflict between Zeus, Prometheus, and humankind. Pandora is therefore a mythological figure, not a historical person or a goddess in the usual Olympian sense.