In Greek mythology, Pandora’s husband was Epimetheus. He was the Titan brother of Prometheus, whose name is commonly interpreted as “afterthought” or “hindsight.”
Prometheus warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus accepted Pandora when she arrived. Hesiod’s Works and Days presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment for Prometheus’s theft of fire and for humanity’s resulting access to it.
The story often gets simplified into “Pandora opened a box,” but the earliest surviving account describes a large storage jar. Pandora’s marriage to Epimetheus is an important part of the myth because it places her among humans rather than among the Olympian gods.
Epimetheus is sometimes confused with Prometheus because the two are brothers and both appear in the same cycle of stories. Prometheus is the planning figure; Epimetheus acts after events have occurred.