In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Hermes gave Pandora a deceptive mind and a crafty character. This detail appears in the sequence describing how Zeus ordered the gods to fashion Pandora and endow her with qualities suited to the divine plan.
The passage presents Pandora as a composite creation. Hephaestus forms her from earth, Athena gives her craftsmanship or adornment, and other gods contribute additional qualities. Hermes’ contribution is associated with speech, mentality, and deceitful behavior, reinforcing the poem’s description of Pandora as both attractive and dangerous to humanity.
Later retellings frequently simplify the episode by assigning Pandora’s entire creation to one god or by treating every gift as positive. Hesiod’s account is more pointed: the gifts are assembled by several gods, and some are deliberately troubling. The story is also connected to Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus’s theft of fire, though Pandora’s role is distinct from Prometheus’s earlier act.