In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to make Pandora.
Hephaestus, the divine smith, shapes Pandora from earth at Zeus’s command. Other gods then contribute qualities or gifts, helping create the figure whose name means “all-gifted” or “all-giving” in traditional explanations. The sequence presents Pandora as a deliberate divine creation rather than as a naturally born human woman.
The story is part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire and deception involving sacrificial portions. Pandora’s creation is therefore tied to a larger conflict between Zeus and Prometheus over the place of humans in the divine order.
Hephaestus is sometimes confused with the giver of Pandora’s individual attributes, but the poem assigns different contributions to several gods. His specific role is making her form from earth. The famous container is associated with Pandora, but the question concerns the person Zeus commands him to create.