In Hesiod’s Pandora story, which craftsman fashioned Pandora from earth?

In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Hephaestus fashioned Pandora from earth.

Works and Days describes Zeus ordering Hephaestus, the divine smith, to make Pandora’s physical form from earth. The other gods then contributed qualities or adornments, including clothing, jewelry, and persuasive abilities. Her name means “all-gifted,” reflecting the gifts supplied by the gods.

Hephaestus is the Greek god associated with fire, metalworking, craftsmanship, and the forge. His role in creating Pandora connects the myth to the wider Greek tradition in which gods or craftsmen shape extraordinary beings and objects.

The story is sometimes confused with the creation of humanity by Prometheus. In some later traditions, Prometheus is linked with shaping humans from clay, but Hesiod specifically assigns Pandora’s construction to Hephaestus. Pandora’s creation is part of Zeus’s retaliation for Prometheus’s theft of fire, not an independent origin story for all human beings.