In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to make a woman before Pandora was presented to humanity.
The poem describes Zeus directing Hephaestus, the divine smith and craftsman, to fashion a woman from earth. The gods then contribute qualities or adornments, producing Pandora as a deliberately created figure rather than a goddess born in the usual mythic manner.
This episode belongs to the punishment story connected with Prometheus. After Prometheus deceives Zeus and steals fire for humans, Zeus arranges a countermeasure intended to bring suffering to mortals. Pandora therefore functions within a larger myth about fire, sacrifice, divine authority, and the origins of human hardship.
Popular summaries sometimes call Pandora the first woman. That description is broadly used in modern retellings, although the exact wording and sequence differ among ancient sources and translations. Hephaestus’s role here is craftsmanship, not naming or marriage.