In Hesiod’s Greek myth, Zeus sends Pandora as punishment after Prometheus steals fire.
Prometheus is associated with helping humanity and, in Hesiod’s account, with taking fire after Zeus had withheld it. Zeus responds by arranging the creation of Pandora, the first woman, and by having her presented to Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus. The story links the arrival of Pandora with the introduction of suffering into human life.
This episode is one of several Greek myths explaining why humans must work, endure hardship, and face illness or other troubles. Prometheus’s fire theft and Pandora’s release of evils are often combined in modern summaries, although Hesiod presents them as connected stages in Zeus’s retaliation. Later writers and artists reinterpret the punishment in many ways, but Pandora remains the central figure in the traditional Hesiodic explanation.