In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Hephaestus fashioned Pandora’s body from earth.
Hephaestus is the Greek god of metalworking, fire, and craftsmanship, so the myth gives him the role of divine maker. Zeus orders him to form Pandora from earth, creating a human-like figure who will become part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus steals fire.
Hephaestus’s role should not be confused with the contributions of the other gods. Athena supplies clothing and craft skill, Aphrodite gives beauty, and Hermes gives speech and a deceptive mind. Pandora is thus a composite creation whose qualities come from several deities.
The account is one of the earliest surviving literary explanations for the arrival of suffering among humans. It also gives the story a distinctive creation scene: Pandora is not born in the ordinary way but is constructed by a divine craftsman. Later versions and artworks often simplify this detail, sometimes presenting Pandora as created by Zeus or as emerging directly from the earth.