In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, Athena gave her skill in weaving.
Works and Days describes Pandora as receiving different qualities from several Olympian gods. Athena, the goddess strongly associated with wisdom, crafts, and warfare, provides clothing and teaches Pandora womanly work, including weaving. This detail places Pandora within the traditional Greek association between textile production, household skill, and female identity.
The gifts are part of Zeus’s plan to create a compelling but dangerous figure for humanity. Pandora is not made by one god alone: Hephaestus shapes her, while other gods add beauty, charm, speech, and other attributes. The combined gifts explain the name Pandora, “all-gifted.”
Later retellings often reduce the episode to a single act of opening a box, leaving out the elaborate creation scene. Another common confusion is assigning weaving to Aphrodite or Hera; in Hesiod’s account, Athena is the deity connected with Pandora’s craft training.