Hermes

Caption	So-called “Logios Hermes” (Hermes,Orator). Marble, Roman copy from the late 1st century CE-early 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 5th century BC.
Name	Hermes
God of	Messenger of the gods God of commerce, thieves, travelers, sports, and border crossings
Abode	Mount Olympus
Symbol	Caduceus, Talaria, Tortoise, Lyre, Rooster,
Consort	Merope, Aphrodite, Dryope, Peitho
Parents	Zeus and Maia
Children	Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche, Abderus, Autolycus, and Angelia
Roman equivalent	Mercury

Hermes (; Greek ) is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and additionally a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics and sports, of weights and measures, of invention, and of commerce in general. His symbols include the tortoise, the rooster, the winged sandals, the winged hat, and the caduceus.

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek religion (see interpretatio romana), Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of commerce.

The Homeric hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one "of many shifts (polytropos), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods."

He protects and takes care of all the travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones and thieves that pray to him or cross his path. He is athletic and is always looking out for runners, or any athletes with injuries who need his help.

Hermes is a messenger from the gods to humans, sharing this role with Iris. An interpreter who bridges the boundaries with strangers is a hermeneus. Hermes gives us our word "hermeneutics", the study and theory of interpretation. In Greek a lucky find was a hermaion. Hermes delivered messages from Olympus to the mortal world. He wears shoes with wings on them and uses them to fly freely between the mortal and immortal world. Hermes was the second youngest of the Olympian gods, being born before Dionysus.

Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the Titan, Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, and therefore was a patron of athletes.

According to prominent folklorist Yeleazar Meletinsky, Hermes is a deified trickster. Hermes also served as a psychopomp, or an escort for the dead to help them find their way to the afterlife (the Underworld in the Greek myths). In many Greek myths, Hermes was depicted as the only god besides Hades, Persephone, Hecate, and Thanatos who could enter and leave the Underworld without hindrance.

Hermes often helped travelers have a safe and easy journey. Many Greeks would sacrifice to Hermes before any trip.

In the fully-developed Olympian pantheon, Hermes was the son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia, a daughter of the Titan Atlas. Hermes' symbols were the rooster and the tortoise, and he can be recognized by his purse or pouch, winged sandals, winged cap, and the herald's staff, the kerykeion. The night he was born he slipped away from Maia and stole his elder brother Apollo's cattle.

Epithets of Hermes

Kriophoros

Hermes Kriophoros, Hermes, lamb-bearer appears both early and later. His ram connection appears in the earliest Mycenaean Linear B inscription bearing his name. And Pausanias reports the lamb-carrying rites still being performed at the Boeotian city of Tanagra in the late second century of the Common Era.

Argeiphontes

Hermes' epithet Argeiphontes (Latin Argicida), or Argus-slayer, recalls his slaying of the hundred eyed giant Argus Panoptes, who was watching over the heifer-nymph Io in the sanctuary of Queen Hera herself in Argos. Putting Argus to sleep, Hermes used a spell to close all of Argus' eyes and then slew the giant. Argus' eyes were then put into the tail of the peacock, symbol of the goddess Hera.

Logios

His epithet of Logios is the representation of the god in the act of speaking, as orator, or as the god of eloquence. Indeed, together with Athena, he was the standard divine representation of eloquence in classical Greece. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes (probably 6th century BCE) describes Hermes making a successful speech from the cradle to defend himself from the (true) charge of cattle theft. In the fifth century CAD Proclus' commentary on Plato's Republic describes Hermes as the god of persuasion. Other Neoplatonists viewed Hermes Logios more mystically as origin of a "Hermaic chain" of light and radiance emanating from the divine intellect (nous). This epithet also produced a sculptural type.

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Other

Other epithets included: Agoraeus, of the agora

Acacesius, of Acacus

Argiphontes, slayer or Argus

Charidotes, giver of charm

Cyllenius, born on Mount Cyllene

Diaktoros, the messenger

Dolios, the schemer

Enagonios, lord of contests

Enodios, on the road

Epimelios, guardian of flocks

Eriounios, luck bringer

Hodios patron of travelers and wayfarers Oneiropompus, conductor of dreams

Polygius

Psychopompos, conveyor of souls

Trismegistus later in Hermeticism

Cult

, 1611 (Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem)]]

:General article: Cult (religion).

Though temples to Hermes existed throughout Greece, a major center of his cult was at Pheneos in Arcadia, where festivals in his honor were called Hermaea.

As a crosser of boundaries, Hermes Psychopompos' ("conductor of the soul") was a psychopomp, meaning he brought newly-dead souls to the Underworld and Hades. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hermes conducted Persephone the Kore (young girl or virgin), safely back to Demeter. He also brought dreams to living mortals.

Among the Hellenes, as the related word herma ("a boundary stone, crossing point") would suggest, Hermes embodied the spirit of crossing-over: He was seen to be manifest in any kind of interchange, transfer, transgressions, transcendence, transition, transit or traversal, all of which involve some form of crossing in some sense. This explains his connection with transitions in one’s fortune—with the interchanges of goods, words and information involved in trade, interpretation, oration, writing—with the way in which the wind may transfer objects from one place to another, and with the transition to the afterlife.

Many graffito dedications to Hermes have been found in the Athenian Agora, in keeping with his epithet of Agoraios and his role as patron of commerce. In the Homeric Hymn to Pan, Pan's mother ran away from the newborn god in fright from his goat-like appearance.

Hermaphroditus

Hermaphroditus was an immortal son of Hermes through Aphrodite. He was changed into an androgynous being, a creature of both sexes, when the gods literally granted the nymph Salmacis' wish, that she and Hermaphroditus were never separated.

Priapus

Depending on the sources consulted, the god Priapus could be understood as a son of Hermes. In Priapus, Hermes' phallic origins survived.

Eros

According to some sources, the mischievous winged god of love Eros, son of Aphrodite, was sired by Hermes, though the gods Ares and Hephaestus were also among those said to be the sire, whereas in the Theogony, Hesiod claims that Eros was born of nothing before the Gods. Eros' Roman name was Cupid. Eros also has magical arrows, with them, he can cause any mortal to fall in love with the next being they see, human or otherwise.

Tyche

The goddess of prosperity, Tyche (Greek ), or Fortuna, was sometimes said to be the daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite

Abderus

Abderus was devoured by the Mares of Diomedes. He had gone to the Mares with his friend Heracles.

Autolycus

Autolycus, the Prince of Thieves, was a son of Hermes and grandfather of Odysseus.

List of Hermes' lovers and children

Hermes in myth

The Iliad

In Homer's Iliad, Hermes helps King Priam of Troy (Ilium) sneak into the Achaean (Greek) encampment to confront Achilles and convince him to return Hector's body.

The body of Sarpedon is carried away from the battlefield of Troy by the twin winged gods, Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death). The pair are depicted clothed in armour, and are overseen by Hermes Psychopompos (Guide of the Dead). The scene appears in book 16 of Homer's Iliad:

"[Apollon] gave him [the dead Sarpedon] into the charge of swift messengers to carry him, of Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), who are twin brothers, and these two presently laid him down within the rich countryside of broad Lykia."

The Odyssey

Hermes was told by Zeus to tell Calypso to release Odysseus immediately from the island of Ogygia; Hermes protects Odysseus from Circe by bestowing upon him a plant, moly, which protects him from her shape-shifting spell after he is told to by Athena. Hermes also appears in book 24, where he plays the role of psychopomp and leads the freshly slain suitors and disloyal maids to the underworld. Odysseus, the main character of the Odyssey, is of matrilineal descent from Hermes.

Battus, a shepherd from Pylos, witnessed Hermes stealing Apollo's cattle. Though he promised his silence, he told many others. Hermes turned him to stone.

Hermes in classical art

In the course of the fifth century, the traditional bearded image of Hermes was replaced by a younger, beardless god. The most famous depiction of Hermes in classical art is perhaps the Hermes and Dionysus group by Praxiteles, son of Kephisodotos, which is dated to about 360–350 BC. The group shows Hermes playing with the baby Dionysus, and although we have lost the hand that held the baby's interest, it is probable that it held a bunch of grapes (a nod to the fact that Dionysus became the god of wine).

Hermes in popular culture

In the God of War game series, Hermes is depicted as an arrogant, mocking character with glowing, golden hair who taunts the main protagonist Kratos as he chases him across the Underworld. Kratos eventually kills him by dismembering his legs and taking his winged boots as a reward, which then allow him to run up walls. In Shazam comics, as Mercury he is one of the six beings that empower Captain Marvel, giving him speed.

Also in the movie Hercules by Disney, Hermes is one of the supporting characters.

Notes

References

Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press)

Karl Kerenyi, 1944. Hermes der Seelenführer.

Ventris, Michael and Chadwick, John (1956). Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Second edition (1974). (Cambridge University Press) ISBN 0-521-08558-6.

Eleazar M. Meletinskii 1986, Vvedenie v istoričeskuû poétiku éposa i romana. Moscow, Nauka.

Introduzione alla poetica storica dell'epos e del romanzo (1993)

External links

Theoi Project, Hermes stories from original sources & images from classical art

Cult & Statues of Hermes

The Myths of Hermes

Ventris and Chadwick: Gods found in Mycenaean Greece: a table drawn up from Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek second edition (Cambridge 1973)

Category:Greek gods Category:Greek mythology Category:Homosexuality in mythology Category:Twelve Olympians Category:Commerce gods Category:Trickster gods Category:Magic gods Category:Greek death gods Category:Animal gods Category:Agricultural gods Category:Offspring of Zeus Category:Deities in the Iliad Category:Messenger gods Category:Underworld gods