Zeus sent Pandora to Epimetheus as punishment for Prometheus’s theft of fire. In Hesiod’s account, Prometheus had deceived Zeus and later stolen fire for humanity, provoking the god’s retaliation.
Zeus’s punishment operates on two levels. Prometheus is punished directly, while humanity receives Pandora and the troubles released from her vessel. The myth therefore links fire, divine anger, labor, and suffering in a single origin story.
Zeus is the ruler of the Olympian gods in this tradition, so he has the authority to command Pandora’s creation and distribution of the gifts given to her. Later retellings may simplify the sequence, but Zeus’s role remains central to the ancient account.