In Hesiod’s Theogony, what is Pandora’s role in the story of Prometheus’s punishment?

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Pandora’s role is as Zeus’s punishment of humanity.

The myth links Pandora’s creation to Prometheus’s conflict with Zeus. After Prometheus deceives Zeus at the sacrificial division and later steals fire for humans, Zeus devises a punishment that affects humanity. Pandora is created as a beautiful, deceptive gift, and her arrival introduces a new source of suffering into the human condition.

The Theogony gives a briefer version of Pandora’s story than Works and Days. It emphasizes the consequences of the fire theft and describes the woman as a beautiful evil whose descendants will trouble mortal men. Works and Days supplies the more developed account of the jar and the release of evils.

A common mistake is to describe Pandora as punishment directed only at Prometheus. Prometheus receives his own physical punishment, while Pandora’s creation is presented as a consequence imposed on humans. The two punishments are related but not identical.