Zeus directed Pandora to Epimetheus after the gods created her. In Hesiod’s account, Zeus’s plan is to send the divinely made woman to Prometheus’s brother as part of the punishment connected with stolen fire.
Epimetheus had been warned by Prometheus not to accept gifts from Zeus. Despite that warning, he accepted Pandora. The myth uses this decision to connect divine deception, human vulnerability, and the spread of suffering. Pandora’s arrival is therefore not an accidental meeting but the result of Zeus’s deliberate plan.
Hermes helps convey or equip Pandora in the creation sequence, but he is not the god who decides her destination. Hephaestus shapes her, and Athena contributes skills and clothing. Zeus remains the authority who orders the creation and sends Pandora into the human household.
Later versions sometimes simplify the story by saying that Pandora was given to humanity generally. Hesiod’s narrative is more specific: Zeus sends her to Epimetheus, whose name means “afterthought,” contrasting with Prometheus, whose name is associated with forethought.