In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Hephaestus used clay to shape Pandora’s body.
Hesiod describes Zeus ordering Hephaestus, the divine craftsman, to make a woman from earth. The gods then furnished her with qualities and skills, including beauty, clothing, speech, and deceptive character. This creation scene makes Pandora an artificial, divinely constructed woman rather than a child born to an ordinary family.
The clay detail connects the story with a wider ancient Mediterranean idea that humans can be formed from earth or mud by a god or supernatural craftsman. Pandora’s creation is not identical to the creation of humanity itself: in Hesiod, men already exist before Pandora is introduced.
Modern images sometimes show Pandora emerging from a box or jar, but those scenes combine later artistic conventions with details from the ancient poem. Hesiod’s vessel is a storage jar, and Pandora herself is shaped before she is sent to Epimetheus. The clay is therefore part of the creation episode, not the container episode.