Hephaestus was ordered by Zeus to shape Pandora from earth in the Pandora myth.
Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Zeus commanding Hephaestus, the divine smith and craftsman, to make a woman. Hephaestus is particularly suited to this task because Greek mythology associates him with metalworking, fire, workshops, and the manufacture of remarkable objects for the gods.
After Pandora is formed, other deities contribute features or gifts. Athena gives her skills in handicraft, while Aphrodite contributes beauty and Hermes is associated with speech and a deceptive nature in the story. Different translations and summaries distribute these details somewhat differently, but Hephaestus’s role as maker remains central.
This episode is part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire. Pandora’s creation is thus connected to a larger myth about divine punishment and the arrival of hardship among humans, not merely to the later image of a container being opened.