In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus.
Prometheus had already angered Zeus by stealing fire and giving it to humanity. According to Works and Days, Zeus responded by arranging the creation of Pandora and sending her to the mortal world. Prometheus recognized the danger and told Epimetheus to reject anything sent by Zeus.
Epimetheus ignored the warning. He accepted Pandora, who had been fashioned and endowed with gifts by the gods. In the myth’s family relationships, Prometheus and Epimetheus are brothers and Titans, and their names are often interpreted as contrasting kinds of thought: Prometheus suggests forethought, while Epimetheus suggests afterthought.
Epimetheus later became Pandora’s husband in the traditional account. The story therefore links his failure to heed Prometheus’s advice with the arrival of suffering among humans, although Pandora’s own role is shaped by Zeus’s scheme rather than by an independent act of villainy.