In Hesiod’s account of Pandora’s Box, Hephaestus created Pandora’s body from clay. The Greek god of fire and metalworking shaped her form at Zeus’s command before the other gods endowed her with their gifts.
This detail appears in Hesiod’s Theogony, where Pandora is linked to the punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire. The creation resembles the making of a crafted figure, reinforcing Hephaestus’s role as the divine artisan. Pandora is then animated and prepared for her place among humans.
Other gods contribute qualities to her presentation. Athena gives her skill, Aphrodite grants beauty, and Hermes gives her a deceptive or persuasive nature in Hesiod’s version. These gifts explain the compound meaning of her name and also reflect the poem’s strongly patriarchal moral viewpoint.
Popular illustrations sometimes show Pandora emerging fully formed from the jar, but that is not Hesiod’s sequence. She is made before she receives the container and before she enters the human world.