In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Hermes is described as giving Pandora a treacherous mind.
Hesiod’s creation scene distributes different qualities among the gods. Hephaestus forms Pandora, Athena teaches or dresses her, Aphrodite grants charm, and Hermes gives her a mind associated with deceit and a lying character. These details establish Pandora as a constructed divine punishment rather than an ordinary human figure.
The passage is part of Hesiod’s broader explanation for why human life contains suffering and labor. Pandora’s story is embedded in a poem concerned with justice, work, agriculture, and the consequences of wrongdoing. Its purpose is therefore moral and cosmological, not merely an adventure about opening a container.
Translations differ in wording because Greek poetic terms can carry several shades of meaning. “Treacherous,” “shameless,” “lying,” and related expressions may appear in English editions. The underlying assignment of deceptive qualities to Hermes, however, is a stable feature of the relevant passage.