In Greek mythology, Pandora was made from clay by the gods.
Hesiod’s works describe Pandora as the first woman, fashioned by the gods at Zeus’s command. Hephaestus shaped her from earth, commonly translated as clay, while other gods gave her various gifts. Her name means “all-gifted” or “all-giving,” reflecting the divine contributions to her creation.
The story appears chiefly in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, written in archaic Greece. Pandora was created as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mortals. The myth therefore connects her creation with the consequences of divine anger rather than presenting her as an ordinary human birth.
Modern retellings sometimes depict Pandora as emerging from a box, but the earliest Greek accounts refer to a large storage jar. “Clay” is the specific material associated with Hephaestus’s creation of her, linking Pandora to other ancient creation traditions in which humans are shaped from earth.