In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Zeus sends Pandora to humanity as punishment for Prometheus’s theft of fire.
Prometheus has obtained fire for humans, angering Zeus. The god responds by arranging the creation of Pandora, whom the gods adorn and send into the human world. Her arrival is therefore framed as part of Zeus’s retaliation, not simply as an accidental discovery by a curious woman.
Hesiod’s account links the punishment of Prometheus and the origin of human suffering. Pandora opens the vessel, releasing the evils that spread among people. The myth thus combines an explanation of hardship with a story about divine revenge.
A frequent mix-up is saying Zeus sends the jar itself as the punishment. In the narrative, Pandora is the figure sent to humanity; the vessel is later entrusted to her and becomes the instrument through which the evils escape.