In the Pandora myth, Zeus sent Pandora to punish humanity after Prometheus stole fire.
Hesiod presents the episode as part of a conflict between Zeus and Prometheus. Prometheus had deceived Zeus during a sacrificial division and later stole fire for humans, an act that improved human life but provoked Zeus’s anger. Zeus then ordered the gods to create Pandora and arranged for her to enter the human world.
The punishment is not simply the opening of a box in isolation. It belongs to a broader myth about the boundaries between gods and humans, the origins of labor, and why mortal life includes hardship. Zeus is sometimes confused with Hephaestus because Hephaestus is associated with making Pandora’s body, but Zeus is the ruler who directs the plan and sends the punishment.