Which Greek god is ordered to make Pandora in Hesiod’s Theogony?

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus orders Hephaestus to make Pandora. Hephaestus is the divine smith, so the assignment connects Pandora’s creation with craftsmanship and the shaping of a figure from earth.

The passage is one of the early surviving literary accounts of Pandora, alongside Hesiod’s Works and Days. In the Theogony, Zeus’s action follows Prometheus’s deception and theft of fire, and Pandora is presented as part of the punishment imposed on humanity. Other gods then contribute qualities or adornments in the broader tradition, but Hephaestus is the craftsman who makes her.

A common mix-up is assigning the creation to Athena because she is associated with crafts, or to Aphrodite because later versions emphasize beauty. Hesiod’s specific account names Hephaestus. The famous “box” wording is also a later popular expression: Hesiod’s Greek text describes a large container, commonly translated as a jar or storage vessel.