Who fashioned Pandora’s body for Zeus in Hesiod’s Works and Days?

Hephaestus fashioned Pandora’s body for Zeus in Hesiod’s Works and Days.

Hesiod presents Pandora as a created figure rather than a woman born through ordinary human parentage. Zeus orders Hephaestus, the divine smith and craftsman, to shape her from earth. Other gods then add qualities or gifts, helping produce the complete figure described in the poem.

Hephaestus is especially associated with metalworking, fire, armor, and the manufacture of divine objects. His role in Pandora’s creation fits his traditional position as the Olympian artisan. Athena, Hermes, and other gods contribute different attributes in Hesiod’s account.

A common mix-up is assigning Pandora’s creation to Prometheus, because Prometheus is linked with shaping humans in some later traditions. In Hesiod’s Pandora story, however, Zeus directs the creation and Hephaestus performs the initial fashioning.