In Hesiod’s Theogony, Hephaestus is associated with creating Pandora. Hesiod describes Zeus ordering the divine smith to fashion Pandora from earth, making her the first woman in the Greek mythic tradition.
The story appears in two major Hesiodic poems, Theogony and Works and Days. The versions differ in emphasis, but both connect Pandora’s creation with Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire. Hephaestus’s role reflects his standard mythological identity as the gods’ craftsman.
Pandora was not simply born in the ordinary human way. Gods supplied her with qualities, clothing, ornaments, and skills, while Hermes gave her a deceptive mind and speech. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is itself a later misunderstanding: Hesiod describes a jar, not a box.
Some retellings make Zeus the creator because he commissioned Pandora, but the craftsman named in Hesiod’s account is Hephaestus.