In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Hephaestus forms Pandora from clay.
Hesiod describes the smith god Hephaestus shaping a woman from earth or clay at Zeus’s command. The material connects Pandora with the broader Greek idea that humans can be fashioned from earth. After Hephaestus gives her physical form, other gods contribute clothing, instruction, speech, and other qualities, making the finished figure a collective divine production.
The detail is important because Pandora is not portrayed as a naturally born mortal woman in this account. Her artificial creation is part of Zeus’s punishment after Prometheus’s theft of fire. The myth therefore links craft, divine power, and the boundary between lifeless matter and a socially active human figure.
Artistic retellings sometimes show Pandora emerging from a statue, metalwork, or a sculptor’s workshop. Those images draw on Hephaestus’s role as divine craftsman but may change the material. Hesiod’s wording is generally translated as earth or clay, not bronze, marble, or ivory.