In the Pandora myth, Zeus instructed Hephaestus to create the first woman. Hesiod’s Works and Days presents Pandora’s creation as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus and humanity’s acquisition of fire.
Hephaestus, the divine smith, shaped Pandora from earth or clay-like material in later visual interpretations. Other gods then contributed abilities and adornments, including craft knowledge, beauty, clothing, and speech. Zeus’s command makes Pandora a deliberate divine creation rather than an accidental human invention.
The story follows Prometheus’s theft of fire for mortals. Zeus punished Prometheus and devised a separate punishment for humans by sending Pandora, whose arrival brought a new set of hardships into the world. In the myth’s logic, the woman and the container are parts of Zeus’s larger plan.
Modern retellings sometimes say that Prometheus created Pandora, but Prometheus is associated with creating or helping humanity in other traditions, not with ordering Pandora’s manufacture in Hesiod’s account.