In Hesiod’s Greek myth of Pandora, Zeus ordered her creation as part of his punishment of humanity.
Hesiod presents Pandora as a divine response to Prometheus’s theft of fire for human beings. Zeus commands Hephaestus to make a woman, while other gods provide her with different qualities and gifts. This makes Pandora part of Zeus’s broader plan to bring suffering to mortals rather than an accidental figure in the story.
The myth appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days, written in ancient Greek verse, and is also mentioned in the Theogony. In the earliest surviving accounts, the container is a large storage jar, not a modern box. Pandora’s opening of it releases evils into the world, while hope remains inside.
A common mix-up is assigning the order to Prometheus, because Prometheus is closely connected with the story. However, Prometheus opposes Zeus and warns his brother Epimetheus not to accept gifts from the gods; Zeus is the deity who directs Pandora’s creation.