Zeus directed Hephaestus to make Pandora in Hesiod’s account.
In Works and Days, Zeus orders the divine smith Hephaestus to create a woman from earth. The command follows Prometheus’s theft of fire for humanity and forms part of Zeus’s retaliation. Pandora’s arrival is therefore presented as a deliberate divine act rather than an accidental discovery.
After Hephaestus makes her, other gods add qualities and adornments. Zeus then has Hermes lead Pandora to Epimetheus, despite Prometheus’s warning that Zeus’s gifts should be rejected. The narrative links the creation, marriage, and opening of the vessel into one chain of consequences.
Zeus is the ruler of the Olympian gods in this story. His role is sometimes overlooked because the familiar modern expression focuses on Pandora and the box, but Hesiod makes Zeus the planner behind the episode.