In Hesiod’s Pandora story, which god fashioned Pandora from clay?

In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Hephaestus fashioned Pandora from clay. Hephaestus is the Greek god of fire, metalworking, craftsmanship, and the forge, making him the natural divine artisan for the task.

In Works and Days, Zeus orders Hephaestus to make a woman as part of the punishment directed at humanity after Prometheus’s theft of fire. Hephaestus shapes the figure from earth, while other gods contribute qualities, clothing, skills, and adornments. This collaborative creation explains the name Pandora, commonly translated as “all-gifted.”

The detail is sometimes simplified into the claim that Pandora was created by Zeus, but Zeus is the authority who commands the creation rather than the craftsman who physically forms her. Hesiod’s account also differs from later artistic and literary retellings, which may make Pandora emerge from the earth or appear as a fully formed goddess-like figure. In the earliest surviving literary version, Hephaestus’s craftsmanship is an essential part of the origin story.