In Greek mythology, Pandora is traditionally described as the first woman created by the gods.
Hesiod presents Pandora in Works and Days as part of Zeus’s punishment for Prometheus’s theft of fire. The gods give her various qualities and gifts before she is sent to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother. Her creation therefore belongs to the myth’s explanation of how suffering entered human life.
The phrase “first woman” is a traditional summary rather than a detail stated identically in every ancient source. Hesiod’s accounts differ in emphasis: Works and Days focuses on her creation and the container, while Theogony gives a shorter version. Pandora is not the same figure as Eve, who occupies a comparable role in the biblical creation story. The later expression “Pandora’s box” also comes from a translation tradition, because Hesiod originally described a large storage jar.