Athena is named as Pandora’s teacher of weaving in Hesiod’s Works and Days.
In Hesiod’s creation account, Athena gives Pandora clothing and teaches her the skills associated with female household craft, including weaving. The episode presents Pandora as a divinely constructed woman whose appearance and abilities are assembled by several gods.
Works and Days is a didactic Greek poem generally dated to around 700 BC. It combines advice about farming, justice, work, and proper conduct with myths such as the Ages of Man and Pandora’s creation. The poem’s Pandora story explains human suffering as part of Zeus’s punishment after Prometheus takes fire.
Athena’s role is sometimes blurred with Aphrodite’s because both gods contribute to Pandora’s attractiveness in later summaries. Hesiod assigns them different functions: Athena supplies clothing and craft instruction, while Aphrodite gives grace, desire, and alluring appearance. These distinctions matter because the surviving ancient accounts do not describe every gift identically.