Hermes gave Pandora a deceptive or persuasive nature in Hesiod’s myth. Zeus instructed the messenger god to place a lying or crafty mind within her as part of her preparation.
Pandora’s qualities were distributed among several gods. Hephaestus shaped her body, Athena taught her useful skills, Aphrodite gave her beauty, and Hermes supplied traits connected with speech and deception. This divine collaboration reinforces the meaning of her name as “all-gifted.”
Hermes was the Olympian messenger and a god associated with communication, cleverness, trade, travel, and trickery. His role in Pandora’s creation fits those wider associations, though the myth presents his gift in a distinctly harmful context.
Popular retellings often attribute all of Pandora’s characteristics to Zeus. Hesiod’s version is more specific: Zeus orders the creation, while individual gods contribute different features and abilities.