In Greek mythology, Hesiod gives the fullest surviving account of Pandora’s creation. Hesiod was an early Greek poet whose works, especially Works and Days, describe Pandora as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire.
According to Hesiod, the gods help create and equip Pandora. Hephaestus forms her from earth, and other deities provide qualities, clothing, or adornments. Hermes gives her a deceptive or persuasive character in the moral framework of the poem. Zeus then sends her to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, despite Prometheus’s warning not to accept gifts from Zeus.
Hesiod’s Theogony also mentions Pandora, but Works and Days contains the more extensive narrative. Homer does not provide this detailed creation story, and Ovid and Virgil belong to later Roman literary traditions rather than being the principal source for the Greek version.
The account is part of a wider explanation of why suffering and hardship exist in the human world. It is therefore both a mythological origin story and a poem about labor, justice, and the consequences of accepting divine gifts.