In Hesiod’s Pandora story, the first human woman is called Pandora. Zeus commands the gods to create her as part of his response to Prometheus’s theft of fire and humanity’s possession of it.
Works and Days presents Pandora as a divinely fashioned woman who receives gifts from the gods. Her name means “all-gifted,” and the account uses her creation to explain why human life includes suffering and hardship. The story is not simply about curiosity; it is also a mythic explanation of the human condition.
Later writers and popular culture sometimes call Pandora the first woman without distinguishing the ancient source. Hesiod’s version is the earliest surviving literary account of that idea. It should also be separated from the biblical story of Eve, another famous narrative about the first woman but a different tradition.