In Greek mythology, Iapetus is traditionally said to have fathered Pandora’s husband, Epimetheus.
Iapetus is one of the Titans, the children of Uranus and Gaia. In Hesiodic genealogy, he and the Oceanid Clymene are the parents of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. That lineage places Pandora’s husband within the same Titan family as Prometheus, whose conflict with Zeus helps lead to Pandora’s creation.
The genealogical detail explains why Prometheus and Epimetheus are brothers rather than unrelated figures who merely happen to appear in connected stories. Iapetus himself is less prominent in surviving myths than his sons, especially Prometheus and Atlas. His importance is therefore often encountered through family trees rather than through a long individual narrative.
Greek mythology contains variant genealogies, and some later authors give different names for the mother of Iapetus’s children. Iapetus as the father of Prometheus and Epimetheus is the standard Hesiodic association. He should not be confused with Cronus, the Titan who leads the older generation and is often treated as the family’s central ruler.