In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, Zeus ordered the gods to create the first woman.
The creation of Pandora follows Prometheus’s theft of fire for humanity. Zeus, ruler of the Olympian gods, responds by planning a punishment for humans and for Prometheus. He commands the gods to make Pandora, who is fashioned from earth and equipped with gifts from several divine figures.
Pandora is therefore not presented as an accidental figure or as a creation initiated by Prometheus. The myth’s narrative links her arrival directly to Zeus’s retaliation. After being prepared, she is taken to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s earlier warning not to accept gifts from Zeus.
This story belongs to Hesiod’s account of the origins of human suffering. It is not identical in every detail across later Greek or Roman retellings, but Zeus’s command is central to the best-known Hesiodic version. Later artists and writers often focus on the jar while leaving the divine origin story in the background.