In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was ordered by Zeus to fashion Pandora from earth. The instruction appears in Hesiod’s account of Pandora’s creation, where the gods cooperate in making the first woman as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity.
Hephaestus, the divine smith, shaped Pandora’s body from earth. Other gods then supplied qualities, skills, ornaments, and powers, giving her a name meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving.” The story therefore presents Pandora as a crafted divine creation rather than a naturally born mortal.
A common mix-up is crediting Prometheus with making Pandora. Prometheus is associated with giving fire to humans and with Zeus’s punishment, but Hephaestus is the craftsman who forms Pandora. Hesiod tells the creation story in both Works and Days and the Theogony, though the details differ between the poems.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is also a later mistranslation of Hesiod’s Greek pithos, meaning a large storage jar.