who was pandora and why was she created
Pandora
The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560 -- 612 of Hesiod 's poem in epic meter , the Theogony ( ca . 8th -- 7th centuries BC ) , without ever giving the woman a name . After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus , an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given . He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman , a `` beautiful evil '' whose descendants would torment the human race . After Hephaestus does so , Athena dresses her in a silvery gown , an embroidered veil , garlands and an ornate crown of silver . This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony , but is presumably Pandora , whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works and Days . When she first appears before gods and mortals , `` wonder seized them '' as they looked upon her . But she was `` sheer guile , not to be withstood by men . '' Hesiod elaborates ( 590 -- 93 ) : 
The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560 -- 612 of Hesiod 's poem in epic meter , the Theogony ( ca . 8th -- 7th centuries BC ) , without ever giving the woman a name . After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus , an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given . He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman , a `` beautiful evil '' whose descendants would torment the human race . After Hephaestus does so , Athena dresses her in a silvery gown , an embroidered veil , garlands and an ornate crown of silver . This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony , but is presumably Pandora , whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works and Days . When she first appears before gods and mortals , `` wonder seized them '' as they looked upon her . But she was `` sheer guile , not to be withstood by men . '' Hesiod elaborates ( 590 -- 93 ) :
After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given.  He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a ``beautiful evil'' whose descendants would torment the human race. This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony, but is presumably Pandora.
After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus , an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given . He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman , a `` beautiful evil '' whose descendants would torment the human race . This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony , but is presumably Pandora , whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works and Days .