Zeus used Pandora’s creation to punish humanity for receiving fire from Prometheus.
Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals, an act that symbolized the transfer of technology, craft, and civilization. Zeus retaliated by arranging a punishment that affected humans as well as the Titan. Pandora was created and sent to Epimetheus, while the jar associated with her contained evils that entered human life.
The fire episode and Pandora episode are therefore connected parts of one mythic sequence. Hesiod presents Zeus’s response as a consequence of Prometheus’s deception and theft. The story explains, in mythological terms, why human life includes hardship while also recognizing fire as a foundation of human capability.
Modern retellings sometimes present Pandora as acting independently of the Prometheus story. In the earliest surviving literary context, however, her arrival follows directly from Zeus’s anger over fire. Prometheus’s later punishment on the Caucasus is another consequence of the same conflict.