In Hesiod’s mythology, Zeus ordered Pandora’s creation. His command is presented as retaliation after Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity.
In Works and Days, Zeus instructs Hephaestus to create a woman from earth and tells the other gods to endow her with various gifts. The episode belongs to Hesiod’s explanation of why human life contains suffering and difficult labor. Pandora is therefore not portrayed as an independent inventor of the world’s troubles; her creation is part of Zeus’s punishment of humankind and Prometheus’s family.
Hesiod’s account is one of the earliest surviving Greek literary versions of the story. The Theogony also describes Zeus’s response to the theft of fire, but gives a shorter account and does not provide every detail found in Works and Days.
Later retellings often simplify the myth into a story about curiosity. Hesiod’s original framework is more specifically about divine punishment, human hardship, and the consequences of Prometheus’s defiance.