In Hesiod’s myth, Pandora is described as the first woman. Works and Days presents her creation as Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire and as the beginning of a new source of difficulty for human beings.
Hesiod’s wording places Pandora within a mythic explanation of marriage, labor, reproduction, and suffering. She is not portrayed as an ordinary historical individual, and she is not herself an Olympian goddess. Instead, the gods construct and equip her, giving her a special role in the origin story of human troubles.
The “first woman” description is often blended with other Greek creation stories. Greek mythology has no single unified creation account, and later writers may combine Pandora’s story with traditions about Prometheus, human origins, or different generations of mortals. In Hesiod, however, Pandora’s introduction specifically marks the arrival of women and the burdens associated with human family life in the poem’s worldview.