In the myth of Pandora’s box, Prometheus’s theft of fire caused Zeus to devise a punishment for humanity.
Prometheus was a Titan who supported humanity and became famous for taking fire from the gods. In Hesiod’s account, this act intensified Zeus’s anger. Zeus then arranged for Pandora to be created and sent to Epimetheus, bringing the jar whose contents would spread suffering among humans.
The fire episode is central to the relationship between Prometheus and Zeus. Fire represents more than warmth: in Greek cultural imagination it supports cooking, craft, metalworking, and technological knowledge. Later writers, especially Aeschylus, developed Prometheus into a heroic champion of humankind, while Hesiod presents him more critically as a source of trouble.
Prometheus and Epimetheus are easy to confuse because they are brothers and both appear in the Pandora story. Prometheus means “forethought,” while Epimetheus is associated with “afterthought.” The thief of fire, however, is specifically Prometheus.