In Hesiod’s *Works and Days*, Zeus sent Pandora as punishment to humanity. The punishment follows Prometheus’s theft of fire, which allowed mortals to possess a power Zeus had intended to withhold.
Hesiod presents Zeus as directing the creation of a woman who brings a sealed vessel containing destructive forces into the human world. The story therefore connects Pandora with the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus rather than presenting her as an isolated character.
The myth is sometimes summarized as a simple story about female curiosity, but Hesiod’s version also reflects ancient Greek ideas about labor, marriage, mortality, and the hardships of human life. Pandora is part of a wider explanation for why suffering exists.
Later retellings often make Zeus’s role less prominent or portray Pandora as the sole cause of disaster. In the earliest surviving literary account, however, Zeus is the divine authority behind the punishment.