In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Prometheus is punished before Pandora appears. The sequence begins with Prometheus’s conflict with Zeus over the distribution of sacrifice and humanity’s possession of fire.
Prometheus is said to have tricked Zeus and later stolen fire for humans, concealing it in a stalk in one common version of the story. Zeus responds by taking fire away and then by arranging a punishment for humanity through Pandora’s creation.
Prometheus’s own punishment is described more fully in other traditions, especially the story in which he is chained to a mountain while an eagle repeatedly eats his liver. Works and Days focuses more directly on the consequences for humans and the introduction of suffering.
The order matters because Pandora is not presented as an isolated character. Her arrival is part of a chain of divine retaliation: Prometheus benefits humanity, Zeus restores his authority, and humans receive a mixture of gifts and afflictions. Later literature often expands this sequence beyond Hesiod’s concise account.