In Greek mythology, who made Pandora from clay on Zeus’s orders?

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus made Pandora from clay on Zeus’s orders. Hesiod describes the gods assembling the first woman after Zeus decided to punish humanity for Prometheus’s theft of fire.

Hephaestus was the divine smith, so his role was to shape Pandora’s body. Other gods then supplied her with qualities and gifts: Athena taught her crafts, Aphrodite gave her grace, and Hermes gave her a deceptive nature and persuasive speech. Her name, Pandora, is commonly explained as “all-gifted,” referring to the gifts bestowed by the gods.

The episode appears most fully in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days. Popular retellings often say that Zeus personally created Pandora, but the myth assigns the physical making to Hephaestus. Pandora’s creation is part of the gods’ response to Prometheus, not an independent origin story for all women in every Greek source.