In the Greek myth of Pandora, Hephaestus shaped her human body from earth. Hesiod presents Zeus ordering the divine smith to form Pandora as part of a punishment aimed at humanity after Prometheus stole fire.
Hephaestus was the Olympian god associated with metalworking, fire, craftsmanship, and inventive construction. His role in Pandora’s creation connects the story with the wider Greek idea that gods could manufacture living or lifelike forms through specialized divine skills.
Other gods then contributed qualities or gifts. Athena taught Pandora useful crafts and dressed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty and desire, and Hermes gave her speech and a deceptive character. These details are sometimes blended together in modern retellings, but Hephaestus is the god specifically associated with fashioning her body.
Hesiod’s account does not describe Pandora as born naturally to human parents. She is instead a divinely constructed woman sent to humans as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s rebellion.