In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Hephaestus fashioned Pandora’s body from clay at Zeus’s command.
Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora as a divinely constructed woman made after Zeus decided to punish humanity for Prometheus’s theft of fire. Hephaestus, the divine smith, shaped her form, while other gods supplied qualities and adornments.
This detail connects Pandora’s creation with Hephaestus’s broader mythological role as the Olympian craftsman. He is associated with metalworking, weapons, armor, and ingenious objects, so the making of the first woman fits his traditional function.
The story is sometimes simplified into the claim that Pandora was created by all the gods equally. Hesiod instead gives different gods separate contributions, with Hephaestus responsible for forming her body. Later retellings also commonly show her emerging from a box, although Hesiod’s original vessel was a large storage jar.