In Hesiod’s Greek mythology, what was Pandora described as being first among humanity?

In Hesiod’s Greek mythology, Pandora was described as the first woman among humanity.

Hesiod presents Pandora’s creation in the eighth-century BCE poem Works and Days. Zeus orders the gods to make her as part of his punishment of humanity after Prometheus steals fire. Hephaestus shapes her, and the other gods furnish her with qualities and gifts.

The story is not a creation account for all human beings in the modern scientific sense. Instead, it explains the mythological arrival of women, marriage, and the hardships associated with mortal life. Pandora’s introduction follows an earlier age in which the story’s human men exist without women.

The phrase “first woman” is specific to Hesiod’s mythic framework. Later Greek and Roman retellings vary in emphasis, and some modern adaptations change Pandora’s role entirely. The myth also differs between Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, with the former providing the fuller narrative of her creation and jar.