In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Prometheus’s theft led directly to Zeus creating Pandora.
Prometheus took fire from the gods and gave it to human beings. Zeus treated this as a serious challenge and devised a punishment that would affect both Prometheus and humanity. He ordered the gods to construct Pandora, then had her brought to Epimetheus as an apparently desirable gift. The later opening of the jar released the sufferings that define the myth.
The sequence is important because Pandora’s story is not simply about curiosity. Hesiod frames it as part of a chain of retaliation: Prometheus helps humans, Zeus responds with a deceptive gift, and humanity inherits hardship. Prometheus’s name and actions also distinguish him from his brother Epimetheus, who accepts the gift despite the warning. Later popular culture often treats the jar as the entire myth, but the theft of fire is the event that supplies its narrative cause.