In Hesiod’s account, which Greek deity shaped Pandora from earth?

In Hesiod’s account, Hephaestus shaped Pandora from earth. Hephaestus was the Greek god of fire, metalworking, craftsmanship, and the forge, so creating a figure by divine craftsmanship suits his traditional role. Zeus commanded him to form Pandora as part of the punishment directed at humanity.

Pandora was not made by Hephaestus alone. Hesiod describes several gods adding qualities to her. Athena taught her crafts, Aphrodite gave her beauty and desire, and Hermes supplied deceptive character and speech. The myth’s name for her, Pandora, reflects the many gifts placed upon her by the gods.

This episode resembles other Greek stories in which a divine artisan constructs a living or lifelike figure. It also gives the myth an etiological function: it explains the arrival of women, marriage, labor, and suffering within Hesiod’s strongly male-centered account of human origins.

Hephaestus is sometimes confused with the Roman Vulcan, but Vulcan is the Roman counterpart rather than the name used in the Greek myth. Athena, meanwhile, is an important contributor to Pandora’s education, not her maker.