Epimetheus received Pandora from Zeus and accepted her despite Prometheus’s warning.
Prometheus, whose name is associated with forethought, advised his brother Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus. Epimetheus nevertheless took Pandora as his wife. The contrast between the brothers’ names supports the myth’s moral pattern: Prometheus anticipates danger, while Epimetheus recognizes it only afterward.
Pandora’s arrival is connected to Zeus’s punishment after Prometheus gave fire to humanity. Her acceptance by Epimetheus brings the divine plan into the human world and sets up the episode involving the sealed vessel. Hesiod’s story thus uses family relationships to connect the fire myth with the origin of human suffering.
Epimetheus is sometimes wrongly identified as Pandora’s father or as the god who stole fire. He is neither. He is Prometheus’s brother and Pandora’s husband, the recipient who ignores the warning.