In Greek mythology, why did Zeus have Pandora created, according to Hesiod’s Works and Days?

According to Hesiod’s Works and Days, Zeus had Pandora created to punish humanity.

The punishment follows Prometheus’s theft of fire for human beings. Zeus responds first by withholding fire and then by arranging a new hardship for humanity. Pandora is fashioned by the gods and sent into the human world as part of this divine retribution.

Hesiod’s version is not primarily a story about curiosity. Its larger purpose is to explain why human life includes toil, illness, suffering, and other troubles. Pandora’s opening of the container is the moment when those troubles spread into the world.

Later retellings often present Pandora as an innocent person who makes one mistake. Hesiod’s account is more severe: Pandora’s creation is deliberately connected to Zeus’s punishment, and the myth forms part of a broader explanation of the human condition.