In the Pandora myth, Prometheus stole fire for humanity before Zeus created Pandora.
Prometheus is the Titan who defied Zeus by taking fire and giving it to human beings. In Greek myth, fire represents more than warmth: it enables cooking, craft, metalworking, and civilization. Zeus punished Prometheus for this act, and the creation of Pandora forms part of the retaliation against both him and humanity.
Hesiod’s Works and Days links the fire episode directly to the Pandora sequence. Prometheus tricks Zeus in the division of an ox and later steals fire, provoking Zeus to devise a different punishment. Pandora is then made and sent as a gift to Epimetheus, carrying consequences that extend beyond Prometheus himself.
Later traditions expand or alter the details, including the famous punishment in which Prometheus is chained and an eagle eats his liver. That punishment is best known from Aeschylus and later mythic treatments. The fire theft and Pandora episode belong to the same broad Promethean cycle, but their versions vary by author.