In Hesiod’s *Works and Days*, Prometheus warns Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus. The warning reflects Prometheus’s awareness that Zeus intends to punish humanity after the theft of fire.
Prometheus is the Titan most strongly associated with foresight and with helping humankind. In the mythic sequence, he steals fire and gives it to humans, provoking Zeus to devise a countermeasure. Pandora is that countermeasure, presented as a beautiful gift rather than an obvious threat.
Epimetheus ignores the warning and accepts Pandora. The contrast between the brothers is deliberate: Prometheus represents forethought, while Epimetheus represents reflection after an event. Their names and actions make the story a compact lesson about judgment and delayed understanding.
Different ancient sources vary in their details, and later writers expand the Prometheus myth in different directions. The warning-and-acceptance episode belongs especially to Hesiod’s account of Pandora and the origin of human troubles.