In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Prometheus gave humanity fire before Zeus created Pandora.
The Pandora story is presented as a consequence of conflict between Zeus and Prometheus. Prometheus, a Titan known for intelligence and concern for humans, steals fire and gives it to humanity after Zeus withholds it. Zeus responds by ordering the creation of Pandora, whose arrival brings a different kind of divine punishment to human beings.
Fire has broad symbolic importance in Greek myth. It represents cooking, warmth, technology, and the possibility of civilization, so its theft explains why Zeus treats Prometheus’s act as a serious challenge to divine authority. In the related myth of Prometheus’s punishment, Zeus also has him bound while an eagle repeatedly eats his liver.
Some retellings focus only on the opened container and omit the Prometheus episode. In Hesiod, however, the two stories are closely connected: Pandora’s creation is not an unrelated event but part of Zeus’s response to the gift of fire.