In Greek mythology, what event caused Zeus to order Pandora’s creation?

In Greek mythology, Prometheus stealing fire caused Zeus to order Pandora’s creation. Hesiod presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment for humanity after Prometheus gives humans the stolen fire.

Prometheus is a Titan who acts as humanity’s benefactor. In the mythic sequence, he deceives Zeus during a sacrifice and later steals fire for mortals. Zeus responds by arranging a different kind of gift: Pandora, whose arrival brings the evils that had previously been absent from human life.

The story is not the same as the later Christian story of an original sin, although both have sometimes been compared as explanations for suffering. In Hesiod, the responsibility is distributed among Zeus’s punishment, Pandora’s opening of the vessel, and the consequences that follow.

Some retellings reduce the cause to “Prometheus angering Zeus.” The more specific event is the theft of fire, which explains why Pandora’s creation enters the narrative at that point.