In Greek mythology, Prometheus told Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus. Prometheus recognized that Zeus’s gifts could conceal danger and warned his brother before Pandora was sent to them.
The warning fits the brothers’ contrasting names and personalities. Prometheus is associated with forethought, while Epimetheus is associated with afterthought. Despite the warning, Epimetheus accepts Pandora, whose arrival forms part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire for humanity.
This episode is often compressed into the separate image of Pandora opening a container. In Hesiod’s narrative, however, the warning and the acceptance of Pandora establish the family and divine conflict before the opening occurs. The story does not present Prometheus as Pandora’s husband: Epimetheus is the recipient of Zeus’s gift, and Prometheus is his brother.