In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, Hephaestus shaped her body from earth.
Hephaestus was the Olympian god associated with fire, metalworking, invention, and craftsmanship. In Works and Days, Zeus orders him to create Pandora as part of a divine plan connected with Prometheus’s theft of fire. Hephaestus mixes earth with water and forms a figure resembling a young woman.
Other gods then contribute qualities to the completed creation. Athena teaches her needlework and other crafts, Aphrodite gives her beauty and desire, and Hermes gives her a deceptive mind and persuasive language. The episode therefore presents Pandora as a collaborative divine construction rather than the work of one god alone.
Modern retellings often simplify the scene by saying that Zeus created Pandora directly. Zeus does command the creation, but the specific craftsman named in Hesiod’s narrative is Hephaestus. This detail also links Pandora’s origin to the broader Greek tradition in which divine artisans make remarkable objects, armor, and beings.