In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, Hermes taught Pandora deceitful speech.
Hesiod describes Pandora’s creation in Works and Days, where Zeus orders the gods to make her as part of humanity’s punishment after Prometheus steals fire. Each deity contributes something to her appearance or abilities. Hermes, the messenger god, gives Pandora a deceptive mind and a deceitful nature, including the power of speech.
This detail is sometimes simplified in modern retellings, which focus mainly on the container and the release of evils. In the ancient story, however, Pandora is assembled through several divine gifts, and Hermes’s contribution helps explain her ability to persuade and mislead. The Greek account does not present her as independently inventing the plot; Zeus and the gods send her to Epimetheus.
Pandora’s story appears most fully in Hesiod’s Works and Days, composed in archaic Greece. The related Theogony also mentions Pandora, but gives fewer details about the opening of the container.