In Hesiod’s creation story, Hermes gave Pandora deceptive speech. Hermes was the messenger of the gods, and in Works and Days he is associated with giving Pandora a voice and a deceptive character.
Pandora’s creation is distributed among several deities. Hephaestus forms her from earth, Athena teaches her crafts, Aphrodite gives her charm, and Hermes contributes qualities connected with speech and deception. The exact wording differs among translations, but Hermes’s role is consistently tied to communication and trickery.
This detail is often overlooked because modern summaries focus on the jar and the escaped evils. It also fits Hermes’s wider mythological identity: he is a god of messages, boundaries, trade, cleverness, and deceit.
Hermes should not be confused with Prometheus, who steals fire, or Epimetheus, who accepts Pandora. Each figure performs a different role in the sequence leading to the myth’s catastrophe.