Who is described as the first woman in the Pandora myth?

Pandora is described as the first woman in the Greek myth associated with Pandora’s box. Hesiod introduces her as a newly created woman sent among humans by the gods.

In Works and Days, Pandora’s creation follows Prometheus’s theft of fire for humanity. Zeus orders the gods to make a woman whose arrival will bring trouble to mortals. Hesiod’s account connects her appearance with a broader explanation of why human life includes suffering, labor, illness, and other hardships.

Pandora is not the same figure as Eve, Helen, or Aphrodite, although later retellings sometimes compare her with other famous mythological women. The story also does not describe her as an ordinary historical person. She belongs to Greek myth and functions as part of a divine origin story about the human condition. Her role as “first woman” is specific to Hesiod’s narrative tradition.