In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods for humanity before Pandora was created.
Prometheus is celebrated in many retellings as a benefactor of humankind because fire enabled cooking, warmth, craft, and technological progress. Hesiod’s version is less celebratory: Zeus punishes Prometheus for the theft and then arranges Pandora’s creation as a further punishment directed at humanity.
The two myths are therefore connected in sequence. Prometheus’s theft provokes Zeus’s anger; Pandora’s arrival and the opening of her jar explain why human life includes suffering and toil. Prometheus’s punishment, in which an eagle repeatedly eats his liver, belongs to the wider myth cycle but is not the immediate event inside Pandora’s story.
Fire is sometimes confused with other divine gifts in Greek mythology, such as wine associated with Dionysus or ambrosia associated with the gods. In this myth, the stolen gift is specifically fire.