In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, Pandora is described as the first mortal woman.
Works and Days presents Pandora as a specially fashioned woman made by the gods. Her creation follows Prometheus’s theft of fire and forms part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity. The myth uses her arrival to explain the origin of women, marriage, and the burdens associated with human life in the poem’s cultural framework.
Pandora is not simply the first woman in every Greek myth. Greek mythology contains several creation traditions, and later authors may adapt or reinterpret earlier stories. The “first woman” description belongs especially to Hesiod’s account and should not be treated as a universally shared ancient Greek doctrine.
The name Pandora means “all-gifted,” reflecting the qualities supplied by the gods. Her creation is different from the birth of a goddess such as Athena, who emerges from Zeus in another myth.