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Hermes

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Hermes
Messenger of the gods, god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, border crossings, guide to the Underworld
Hermes Ingenui Pio-Clementino Inv544.jpg
Hermes Ingenui (Vatican Museums). Roman copy of the 2nd century BC after a Greek original of the 5th century BC. Hermes wears: kerykeion, kithara, petasus (round hat), traveler's cloak and winged temples.
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Talaria, caduceus, tortoise, lyre, rooster
Consort Merope, Aphrodite, Dryope, Peitho, Hecate
Parents Zeus and Maia
Siblings Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai
Children Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche, Abderus, Autolycus, Angelia
Roman equivalent Mercury
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Ancient Greek religion
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Hermes (/ˈhɜːrmiːz/; Greek: Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods (Dionysus being the youngest).

Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries. He is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He is also portrayed as an emissary and messenger of the gods;[1] an intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves,[2] oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade,[3] roads, boundaries and travelers.[4]

In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.[5]

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon (see interpretatio romana), Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury,[6] who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics such as being the patron of commerce.

Etymology[edit]

The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek *hermāhās,[7] written 𐀁𐀔𐁀 e-ma-a2 (e-ma-ha) in the Linear B syllabic script.[8] Most scholars derive "Hermes" from Greek ἕρμα herma,[9] "prop,[10] heap of stones, boundary marker", from which the word hermai ("boundary markers dedicated to Hermes as a god of travelers") also derives.[11] The etymology of ἕρμα itself is unknown (probably not an Indo-European word).[7] R. S. P. Beekes rejects the connection with herma and suggests a Pre-Greek origin.[7]

Scholarly speculation that "Hermes" derives from a more primitive form meaning "one cairn" is disputed.[12] In Greek, a lucky find is a hermaion.

It is also suggested that Hermes is a cognate of the Vedic Sarama.[13][14]

Mythology[edit]

Early Greek sources[edit]

Hermes with his mother Maia. Detail of the side B of an Attic red-figure belly-amphora, c. 500 BC.
Kriophoros Hermes (which takes the lamb), late-Roman copy of Greek original from the 5th century BC. Barracco Museum, Rome

Homer and Hesiod[edit]

Homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad, he is called "the bringer of good luck", "guide and guardian", and "excellent in all the tricks". He was a divine ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and accompanied them back to Troy.[15]

He also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes helps his great-grand son, the protagonist Odysseus, by informing him about the fate of his companions, who were turned into animals by the power of Circe. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calypso of Zeus' order to free Odysseus from her island to allow him to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades.[16] In The Works and Days, when Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to disgrace humanity by punishing Prometheus's act of giving fire to man, every god gave her a gift, and Hermes' gifts were lies, seductive words, and a dubious character. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.[17]

Aeschylus[edit]

Aeschylus wrote in The Eumenides that Hermes helped Orestes kill Clytemnestra under a false identity and other stratagems,[2] and also said that he was the god of searches, and those who seek things lost or stolen.[18] In Philoctetes, Sophocles invokes Hermes when Odysseus needs to convince Philoctetes to join the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and in Euripides' Rhesus Hermes helps Dolon spy on the Greek navy.[2]

Aesop[edit]

Aesop featured him in several of his fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, of edible roots, and of hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence.[19]

The hymn to Hermes[edit]

The Hymn to Hermes[20] 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."[21] Hermes, as an inventor of fire,[22] 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.[23]

Translations[edit]

In 1820 Shelley translated this hymn.[24]

H. G. Evelyn-White's translation, published 1914, is used on the Perseus Project.[25]

Hellenistic Greek sources[edit]

Several writers of the Hellenistic period expanded the list of Hermes's achievements. Callimachus said that Hermes disguised himself as a cyclops to scare the Oceanides and was disobedient to his mother.[26] One of the Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. Aeschylus had called him by this epithet several times.[27] Another is the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, where his association with the athletic games held in tone is mystic.[28]

Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts,[29] and Pseudo-Apollodorus reported several events involving Hermes. He participated in the Gigantomachy in defense of Olympus; was given the task of bringing baby Dionysus to be cared for by Ino and Athamas and later by nymphs of Asia, followed Hera, Athena and Aphrodite in a beauty contest; favored the young Hercules by giving him a sword when he finished his education and lent his sandals to Perseus.[30] The Thracian princes identified him with their god Zalmoxis, considering his ancestor.[31]

Anyte of Tegea of the 3rd century BC,[32] in translation by R Aldington, wrote:[33]

I Hermes stand here at the crossroads by the wind beaten orchard, near the hoary grey coast; and I keep a resting place for weary men. And the cool stainless spring gushes out.

called Hermes of the Ways after the patronage of travelers.[34]

Epithets of Hermes[edit]

Atlantiades[edit]

Hermes also called Atlantiades (Greek: Ατλαντιάδης), because his mother, Maia was the daughter of Atlas. [35][36]

Kriophoros[edit]

Main article: Kriophoros

In ancient Greek cult, kriophoros (Greek: κριοφόρος) or criophorus, the "ram-bearer," is a figure that commemorates the solemn sacrifice of a ram. It becomes an epithet of Hermes: Hermes Kriophoros.

Argeiphontes[edit]

Hermes's epithet Ἀργειφόντης Argeiphontes (Latin: Argicida), meaning "Argus-slayer",[37][38] 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. Hermes placed a charm on Argus's eyes with the caduceus to cause the giant to sleep, after this he slew the giant.[9] Argus' eyes were then put into the tail of the peacock, a symbol of the goddess Hera.

Messenger and guide[edit]

The chief office of the God was as messenger.[39]

  • Hermes (Diactoros, Angelos)[40] the messenger,[41] is in fact only seen in this role, for Zeus, from within the pages of the Odyssey (Brown 1990).[2]

Oh mighty messenger of the gods of the upper and lower worlds ... (Aeschylus).[42]

explicitly, at least in sources of classical writings, of Euripides Electra and Iphigenia in Aulis[43] and in Epictetus Discourses.[44]

Sarpedon's body carried by Hypnos and Thanatos (Sleep and Death), while Hermes watches. Side A of the so-called "Euphronios krater", Attic red-figured calyx-krater signed by Euxitheos (potter) and Euphronios (painter), c. 515 BC.

The messenger divine and herald of the Gods, he wears the gifts from his father, the Petasus and Talaria.[45]

and also

  • Hodios, patron of travelers and wayfarers.[37]
  • Oneiropompus, conductor of dreams.[37]
  • Poimandres, shepherd of men.[46]
  • Psychopompos, conveyor or conductor of souls[41][47] and psychogogue, conductor or leader of souls in (or through) the underworld.[48]

Trade[edit]

So-called "Logios Hermes" (Hermes Orator). Marble, Roman copy from the late 1st century BC - early 2nd century AD after a Greek original of the 5th century BC.

Hermes is sometimes depicted in art works holding a purse.[52]

Dolios[edit]

  • Dolios, "tricky".[53]

No cult to Hermes Dolios existed in Attica, of this Athens being the capital, and so this form of Hermes seems to have existed in speech only.[54][55]

The god is ambiguous.[56]

According to prominent folklorist Yeleazar Meletinsky, Hermes is a deified trickster.[57] and master of thieves ("a plunderer, a cattle-raider, a night-watching" in Homers' Hymns)[58] and deception (Euripides)[59] and (possibly evil) tricks and trickeries,[51][60][61][62] crafty (from lit. god of craft),[63] the cheat,[64] the god of stealth.[65]

friendliest to man

and cunning,[66] (see also, to act secretively as kleptein, in reference EL Wheeler), of treachery,[67] the schemer.[68]

Hermes Dolios, was worshipped at Pellene[69][70] and invoked through Odysseus.[71]

(As the ways of gain are not always the ways of honesty and straightforwardness, Hermes obtains a bad character and an in-moral (amoral [ed.]) cult as Dolios)[72]

Hermes is amoral[73] like a baby.[74] Although Zeus sent Hermes as a teacher to humanity to teach them knowledge of and value of justice and to improve inter-personal relationships ("bonding between mortals").[75]

Considered to have a mastery of rhetorical persuasion and special pleading, the god typically has nocturnal modus operandi.[76] Hermes knows the boundaries and crosses the borders of them to confuse their definition.[77]

Thief[edit]

In the Lang translation of Homer's Hymn to Hermes, the god after being born is described as a robber, a captain of raiders, and a thief of the gates.[78]

According to the late Jungian psychotherapist López-Pedraza, everything Hermes thieves, he later sacrifices to the gods.[79]

Patron of thieves[edit]

Autolycus received his skills as the greatest of thieves due to sacrificing to Hermes as his patron.[80]

Additional[edit]

Other epithets included:

  • chthonius – at the festival Athenia Chytri sacrifices are made to this visage of the god only.[81][82]
  • cyllenius, born on Mount Kyllini
  • epimelios, guardian of flocks[37]
  • koinos[83]
  • kriophoros, "ram-bearer"[84]
  • ploutodotes, giver of wealth (as inventor of fire)[85]
  • proopylaios, "before the gate", "guardian of the gate",[86] Pylaios, "doorkeeper"[87]
  • strophaios, "standing at the door post"[51][88]
  • Stropheus, "the socket in which the pivot of the door moves" (Kerényi in Edwardson) or "door-hinge". Protector of the door (that is the boundary), to the temple[49][89][90][91][92]
  • patron of gymnasia[93]

Worship and cult[edit]

Statue of Hermes wearing the petasos, a voyager's cloak, the caduceus and a purse. Roman copy after a Greek original (Vatican Museums).

Prior to being known as Hermes, Frothingham thought the god to have existed as a snake-god.[94] Angelo (1997) thinks Hermes to be based on the Thoth archetype.[95] The absorbing ("combining") of the attributes of Hermes to Thoth developed after the time of Homer amongst Greek and Roman; Herodotus was the first to identify the Greek god with the Egyptian (Hermopolis), Plutarch and Diodorus also, although Plato thought the gods to be dis-similar (Friedlander 1992).[96][97]

A cult was established in Greece in remote regions, likely making him a god of nature, farmers, and shepherds. It is also possible that since the beginning he has been a deity with shamanic attributes linked to divination, reconciliation, magic, sacrifices, and initiation and contact with other planes of existence, a role of mediator between the worlds of the visible and invisible.[98]

During the 3rd century BC, a communication between Petosiris (a priest) to King Nechopso, probably written in Alexandria c. 150 BC, states Hermes is the teacher of all secret wisdoms available to knowing by the experience of religious ecstasy.[46][99]

Due to his constant mobility, he was considered the god of commerce and social intercourse, the wealth brought in business, especially sudden or unexpected enrichment, travel, roads and crossroads, borders and boundary conditions or transient, the changes from the threshold, agreements and contracts, friendship, hospitality, sexual intercourse, games, data, the draw, good luck, the sacrifices and the sacrificial animals, flocks and shepherds and the fertility of land and cattle. In addition to serving as messenger to Zeus, Hermes carried the souls of the dead to Hades, and directed the dreams sent by Zeus to mortals.[100][101][102]

Temples[edit]

One of the oldest places of worship for Hermes was Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, where the myth says that he was born. Tradition says that his first temple was built by Lycaon. From there the cult would have been taken to Athens, and then radiate to the whole of Greece, according to Smith, and his temples and statues became extremely numerous.[100] Lucian of Samosata said he saw the temples of Hermes everywhere.[103]

In many places, temples were consecrated in conjunction with Aphrodite, as in Attica, Arcadia, Crete, Samos and in Magna Graecia. Several ex-votos found in his temples revealed his role as initiator of young adulthood, among them soldiers and hunters, since war and certain forms of hunting were seen as ceremonial initiatory ordeals. This function of Hermes explains why some images in temples and other vessels show him as a teenager. As a patron of the gym and fighting, Hermes had statues in gyms and he was also worshiped in the sanctuary of the Twelve Gods in Olympia, where Greeks celebrated the Olympic Games. His statue was held there on an altar dedicated to him and Apollo together.[104] A temple within the Aventine was consecrated in 495 BC.[105][106]

Symbols of Hermes were the palm tree, turtle, rooster, goat, the number four, several kinds of fish, incense. Sacrifices involved honey, cakes, pigs, goats, and lambs. In the sanctuary of Hermes Promakhos in Tanagra is a strawberry tree under which it was believed he had created,[107] and in the hills Phene ran three sources that were sacred to him, because he believed that they had been bathed at birth.

Festival[edit]

Hermes's feast was the special Hermaea was celebrated with sacrifices to the god and with athletics and gymnastics, possibly having been established in the 6th century BC, but no documentation on the festival before the 4th century BC survives. However, Plato said that Socrates attended a Hermaea. Of all the festivals involving Greek games, these were the most like initiations because participation in them was restricted to young boys and excluded adults.[108]

Hermai/Herms[edit]

Main article: Herma
This circular Pyxis or box depicts two scenes. The one shown presents Hermes awarding the golden apple of the Hesperides to Aphrodite, who Paris has selected as the most beautiful of the goddesses.[109] The Walters Art Museum.

In Ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form herma, was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones; each traveler added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BC, Hipparchos, the son of Pisistratus, replaced the cairns that marked the midway point between each village deme at the central agora of Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of Hermes with a beard. An erect phallus rose from the base. In the more primitive Mount Kyllini or Cyllenian herms, the standing stone or wooden pillar was simply a carved phallus. In Athens, herms were placed outside houses for good luck. "That a monument of this kind could be transformed into an Olympian god is astounding," Walter Burkert remarked.[110]

In 415 BC, when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized one night. The Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from Syracuse or from the anti-war faction within Athens itself. Socrates' pupil Alcibiades was suspected of involvement, and Socrates indirectly paid for the impiety with his life.[111]

Hermes's possible offspring[edit]

Pan[edit]

The satyr-like Greek god of nature, shepherds and flocks, Pan, could possibly be the son of Hermes through the nymph Dryope.[112] In the Homeric Hymn to Pan, Pan's mother fled in fright from her newborn son's goat-like appearance.[113]

Priapus[edit]

Depending on the sources consulted, the god Priapus could be understood as a son of Hermes.[114]

Autolycus[edit]

Autolycus, the Prince of Thieves, was a son of Hermes and Chione (mortal) and grandfather of Odysseus.[115]

Extended list of Hermes's lovers and children[edit]

  1. Acacallis
    1. Cydon
  2. Aglaurus
    1. Eumolpus
  3. Amphion[116]
  4. Alcidameia of Corinth
    1. Bounos
  5. Antianeira / Laothoe
    1. Echion, Argonaut
    2. Erytus, Argonaut
  6. Apemosyne
  7. Aphrodite
    1. Hermaphroditus
    2. Tyche (possibly)
  8. Astabe, daughter of Peneus
    1. Astacus
  9. Carmentis
    1. Evander
  10. Chione / Stilbe / Telauge[117]
    1. Autolycus
  11. Chryses, priest of Apollo
  12. Chthonophyle
    1. Polybus of Sicyon
  13. Crocus
  14. Daeira the Oceanid
    1. Eleusis
  15. Dryope, Arcadian nymph
    1. Pan (possibly)
  16. Erytheia (daughter of Geryon)
    1. Norax[118]
  17. Eupolemeia (daughter of Myrmidon)
    1. Aethalides
  18. Hecate
    1. three unnamed daughters[119]
  19. Herse
    1. Cephalus
    2. Ceryx (possibly)
  20. Hiereia
    1. Gigas[120]
  21. Iphthime (daughter of Dorus)
    1. Lycus
    2. Pherespondus
    3. Pronomus
  22. Libye (daughter of Palamedes)
    1. Libys[121]
  23. Ocyrhoe
    1. Caicus
  24. Odrysus[122]
  25. Orsinoe, nymph[123]
    1. Pan (possibly)
  26. Palaestra, daughter of Choricus
  27. Pandrosus
    1. Ceryx (possibly)
  28. Peitho
  29. Penelope
    1. Nomios
    2. Pan (possibly)
  30. Persephone (unsuccessfully wooed her)
  31. Perseus[124]
  32. Phylodameia
    1. Pharis
  33. Polydeuces[125]
  34. Polymele (daughter of Phylas)
    1. Eudorus
  35. Rhene, nymph
    1. Saon of Samothrace[126]
  36. Sicilian nymph
    1. Daphnis
  37. Sose, nymph
    1. Agreus
  38. Tanagra, daughter of Asopus
  39. Theobula / Clytie / Clymene / Cleobule / Myrto / Phaethusa the Danaid
    1. Myrtilus
  40. Therses[127]
  41. Thronia
    1. Arabus
  42. Urania, Muse
    1. Linus (possibly)
  43. Unknown mothers
    1. Abderus
    2. Angelia
    3. Dolops
    4. Palaestra

Genealogy[edit]

Hermes's family tree
Uranus Gaia
Uranus' genitals Iapetus Oceanus Tethys Cronus Rhea
Clymene [128] Pleione Zeus Hera Poseidon Hades Demeter Hestia
Atlas     a [129]
     b [130]
Maia
Ares Hephaestus
Hermes Metis
Athena [131]
Leto
Apollo Artemis
Semele
Dionysus
Dione
    a [132]      b [133]
Aphrodite

Art and iconography[edit]

Main page: Category:Hermes types
Archaic bearded Hermes from a herm, early 5th century BC.
Hermes Fastening his Sandal, early Imperial Roman marble copy of a Lysippan bronze (Louvre Museum)

The image of Hermes evolved and varied according to Greek art and culture. During Archaic Greece he was usually depicted as a mature man, bearded, dressed as a traveler, herald, or pastor. During Classical and Hellenistic Greece he is usually depicted young and nude, with athleticism, as befits the god of speech and of the gymnastics, or a robe, a formula is set predominantly through the centuries. When represented as Logios (speaker), his attitude is consistent with the attribute. Phidias left a statue of a famous Hermes Logios and Praxiteles another, also well known, showing him with the baby Dionysus in his arms. At all times, however, through the Hellenistic periods, Roman, and throughout Western history into the present day, several of his characteristic objects are present as identification, but not always all together.[100][134]

Among these objects is a wide-brimmed hat, the Petasos, widely used by rural people of antiquity to protect themselves from the sun, and that in later times was adorned with a pair of small wings; sometimes the hat is not present, and may have been replaced with wings rising from the hair. Another object is the Porta: a stick, called a rhabdomyolysis[clarification needed] (stick) or skeptron (scepter), which is referred to[by whom?] as a magic wand. Some early sources[who?] say that this was the bat he received from Apollo, but others[who?] question the merits of this claim. It seems that there may have been two canes, one of a shepherd's staff, as stated in the Homeric Hymn, and the other a magic wand, according to some authors.[who?] His bat also came to be called kerykeion, the caduceus, in later times. Early depictions of the staff show it as a baton stick topped by a golden way[clarification needed] that resembled the number eight, though sometimes with its top truncated and open. Later the staff had two intertwined snakes and sometimes it was crowned with a pair of wings and a ball, but the old form remained in use even when Hermes was associated with Mercury by the Romans.[100][135]

Hyginus explained the presence of snakes, saying that Hermes was traveling in Arcadia when he saw two snakes intertwined in battle. He put the caduceus between them and parted, and so said his staff would bring peace.[136] The caduceus, historically, there appeared with Hermes, and is documented among the Babylonians from about 3500 BC. The two snakes coiled around a stick was a symbol of the god Ningishzida, which served as a mediator between humans and the mother goddess Ishtar or the supreme Ningirsu. In Greece itself the other gods have been depicted holding a caduceus, but it was mainly associated with Hermes. It was said to have the power to make people fall asleep or wake up, and also made peace between litigants, and is a visible sign of his authority, being used as a sceptre.[100]

He was represented in doorways, possibly as an amulet of good fortune, or as a symbol of purification. The caduceus is not to be confused with the Rod of Asclepius, the patron of medicine and son of Apollo, which bears only one snake. The rod of Asclepius was adopted by most Western doctors as a badge of their profession, but in several medical organizations of the United States, the caduceus took its place since the 18th century, although this use is declining. After the Renaissance the caduceus also appeared in the heraldic crests of several, and currently is a symbol of commerce.[100]

His sandals, called pédila by the Greeks and talaria by the Romans were made of palm and myrtle branches, but were described as beautiful, golden and immortal, made a sublime art, able to take the roads with the speed of wind. Originally they had no wings, but late in the artistic representations, they are depicted. In certain images, the wings spring directly from the ankles. He has also been depicted with a purse or a bag in his hands, and wearing a robe or cloak, which had the power to confer invisibility. His weapon was a sword of gold, which killed Argos; lent to Perseus to kill Medusa.[100]

In other religions[edit]

Christianity[edit]

In Acts 14, Paul the Apostle visited the city of Lystra and he was mistaken for Hermes.[137]

Modern interpretation[edit]

Hermes as a Postman on the Old-Mail-Office-Building in Flensburg

Psychology[edit]

For Carl Jung Hermes's role as messenger between realms and as guide to the underworld,[138] made him the god of the unconscious,[139] the mediator between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, and the guide for inner journeys.[140][141] Jung considered the gods Thoth and Hermes to be counterparts.[142] In Jungian psychology especially,[143] Hermes is seen as relevant to study of the phenomenon of synchronicity[144] (together with Pan and Dionysus):[145][146]

Hermes is ... the archetypal core of Jung's psyche, theories ...

— DL Merritt[139]

He is identified by some with the archetype of healer,[79] as the ancient Greeks ascribed healing magic to him.[141]

In the context of abnormal psychology Samuels (1986) states that Jung considers Hermes the archetype for narcissistic disorder; however, he lends the disorder a "positive" (beneficious) aspect, and represents both the good and bad of narcissism.[147]

For López-Pedraza, Hermes is the protector of psychotherapy.[148] For McNeely, Hermes is a god of the healing arts.[149]

According to Christopher Booker, all the roles Hermes held in ancient Greek thought all considered reveals Hermes to be a guide or observer of transition.[150]

For Jung, Hermes's role as trickster made him a guide through the psychotherapeutic process.[141]

French thought[edit]

French philosopher Michel Serres wrote a set of essays called the Hermes series.[151]

Hermes in popular culture[edit]

See Greek mythology in popular culture: Hermes

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Iris having a similar role as divine messenger.
  2. ^ a b c d Norman Oliver Brown (1990). Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth. Steiner Books. pp. 3–10. ISBN 978-0-940262-26-3. 
  3. ^ Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985, section III.2.8.
  4. ^ M. G. Lay; James E. Vance, Jr. Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them (p. 52). Rutgers University Press, 1992, ISBN 0813526914. 
  5. ^ The Latin word cādūceus is an adaptation of the Greek κηρύκειον kērukeion, meaning "herald's wand (or staff)", deriving from κῆρυξ kērux, meaning "messenger, herald, envoy". Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon; Stuart L. Tyson, "The Caduceus", The Scientific Monthly, 34.6 (1932:492–98), p. 493.
  6. ^ Bullfinch's Mythology (1978), Crown Publishers, p. 926.
  7. ^ a b c Beekes, R.S.P. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. With the assistance of Lucien van Beek. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 461–2. ISBN 9789004174184. 
  8. ^ Joann Gulizio, Hermes and e-m-a2 (PDF), University of Texas, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2013, retrieved 26 November 2011 
  9. ^ a b Greek History and the Gods. Grand Valley State University (Michigan). 
  10. ^ ἕρμα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  11. ^ ἑρμαί in Liddell and Scott.
  12. ^ Davies, Anna Morpurgo & Duhoux, Yves. Linear B: a 1984 survey. Peeters Publishers, 1985, p. 136.
  13. ^ Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, ed. Félix Guirand & Robert Graves, Hamlyn, 1968, p. 123.
  14. ^ Debroy, Bibek (2008). Sarama and her Children: The Dog in the Indian Myth. Penguin Books India. p. 77. ISBN 0143064703. 
  15. ^ Homer. The Iliad. The Project Gutenberg Etext. Trans. Samuel Butler.
  16. ^ Homer. The Odyssey. Plain Label Books, 1990. Trans. Samuel Butler. pp. 40, 81–82, 192–195.
  17. ^ Hesiod. Works And Days. ll. 60–68. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914.
  18. ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 919. Quoted in God of Searchers. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  19. ^ Aesop. Fables 474, 479, 520, 522, 563, 564. Quoted in God of Dreams of Omen; God of Contests, Athletics, Gymnasiums, The Games, Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  20. ^ "The conventional attribution of the Hymns to Homer, in spite of linguistic objections, and of many allusions to things unknown or unfamiliar in the Epics, is merely the result of the tendency to set down "masterless" compositions to a well-known name...": Andrew Lang, THE HOMERIC HYMNS A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL. Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition. Project Gutenberg.
  21. ^ Hymn to Hermes 13. The word polutropos ("of many shifts, turning many ways, of many devices, ingenious, or much wandering") is also used to describe Odysseus in the first line of the Odyssey.
  22. ^ In the Homeric hymn, "after he had fed the loud-bellowing cattle... he gathered much wood and sought the craft of fire. He also invented written music and many other things. He took a splendid laurel branch, gripped it in his palm, and twirled it in pomegranate wood" (lines 105, 108–10)
  23. ^ "First Inventors... Mercurius [Hermes] first taught wrestling to mortals." – Hyginus, Fabulae 277.
  24. ^ N Richardson, The Homeric Hymns (edited by J Cashford), Penguin UK, 2003, ISBN 0140437827.
  25. ^ Perseus Project. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
  26. ^ Callimachus. Iambi, Frag. 12. Quoted in "God of Memory and Learning". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  27. ^ Orphic Hymn 57 to Chthonian Hermes Aeschylus. Libation Bearers. Cited in Guide of the Dead. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  28. ^ Orphic Hymn 28 to Hermes. Quoted in God of Contests, Athletics, Gymnasiums, The Games. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  29. ^ Phlegon of Tralles. Book of Marvels, 2.1. Quoted in Guide of the Dead. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  30. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library. Quoted in Hermes Myths 2, Hermes Myths 3, Hermes Favour. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  31. ^ Herodotus. Histories, 5.7. Quoted in "Identified with Foreign Gods". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  32. ^ SG Yao, Translation and the Languages of Modernism: Gender, Politics, Language, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, ISBN 0312295197.
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  35. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses
  36. ^ Mike Dixon-Kennedy (1998). Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology. ABC-CLIO. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-57607-094-9. 
  37. ^ a b c d The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. 
  38. ^ Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia.
  39. ^ W. Blackwood Ltd. (Edinburgh). Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Volume 22; Volume 28. Leonard Scott & Co. 1849. 
  40. ^ R Davis-Floyd, P Sven Arvidson, Intuition: The Inside Story : Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415915945.
  41. ^ a b New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (New (fifth impression) ed.). Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1972 [1968]. p. 123. ISBN 0-600-02351-6. 
  42. ^ Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Études mithriaques: actes du 2e Congrès International, Téhéran, du 1er au 8 september 1975. BRILL, 1978. 
  43. ^ Perseus – Tufts University.
  44. ^ Perseus – Tufts University.
  45. ^ Rochester Institute of Technology. "Greek Gods". Rochester Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. 
  46. ^ a b M-L von Franz. Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology: Reflections of the Soul. Open Court Publishing, 1985. ISBN 0875484174. 
  47. ^ JF Krell, "Mythical patterns in the art of Gustave Moreau: The primacy of Dionysus".
  48. ^ The Chambers Dictionary Allied Publishers, 1998.
  49. ^ a b Mabel Lang (1988). Graffiti in the Athenian Agora (PDF). Excavations of the Athenian Agora (rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. p. 7. ISBN 0-87661-633-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2004. Retrieved 14 April 2007. 
  50. ^ V Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy, Taylor & Francis, 1943.
  51. ^ a b c Aristophanes[clarification needed]
  52. ^ S. Hornblower; A. Spawforth. The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (p. 370). Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press, 2014, ISBN 0198706774. 
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  55. ^ An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time - Volume 5 (p. 34), 1779.
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  57. ^ Meletinsky, Introduzione (1993), p. 131.
  58. ^ N. O. Brown, Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth
  59. ^ NW Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, ISBN 0812236521.
  60. ^ "[T]he thief praying...": W Kingdon Clifford, L Stephen, F Pollock
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  62. ^ A Brown, A New Companion to Greek Tragedy, Taylor & Francis, 1983, ISBN 0389203963.
  63. ^ F Santi Russell, Information Gathering in Classical Greece, University of Michigan Press, 1999.
  64. ^ JJ Ignaz von Döllinger, The Gentile and the Jew in the courts of the Temple of Christ: an introduction to the history of Christianity, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1862.
  65. ^ EL Wheeler, Stratagem and the Vocabulary of Military Trickery, BRILL, 1988, ISBN 9004088318.
  66. ^ R Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0199216118.
  67. ^ Athenaeus, The learned banqueters, Harvard University Press, 2008.
  68. ^ I Ember, Music in painting: music as symbol in Renaissance and baroque painting , Corvina, 1984.
  69. ^ Pausanias, 7.27.1
  70. ^ Plutarch (trans. William Reginald Halliday), The Greek questions of Plutarch.
  71. ^ S Montiglio, Silence in the Land of Logos, Princeton University Press, 2010, ISBN 0691146586.
  72. ^ J Pòrtulas, C Miralles, Archilochus and the Iambic Poetry (page 24).
  73. ^ JH Riker, Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Psyche, SUNY Press, 1991, ISBN 0791405192.
  74. ^ [1].
  75. ^ Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Amoral Politics: The Persistent Truth of Machiavellism (p. 102), SUNY Press, 1995, ISBN 0791422798.
  76. ^ "Three Homeric Hymns". 
  77. ^ L Hyde, Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth and Art, Canongate Books, 2008.
  78. ^ Andrew Lang, THE HOMERIC HYMNS A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL. Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition.
  79. ^ a b R López-Pedraza, Hermes and His Children, Daimon, 2003, p. 25, ISBN 3856306307.
  80. ^ The Homeric Hymns (pp. 76–77), edited by AN Athanassakis, JHU Press, 2004, ISBN 0801879833.
  81. ^ Aristophanes, The Frogs of Aristophanes, with Notes and Critical and Explanatory, Adapted to the Use of Schools and Universities, by T. Mitchell, John Murray, 1839.
  82. ^ GS Shrimpton, Theopompus The Historian, McGill-Queens, 1991.
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  84. ^ MA De La Torre, A Hernández, The Quest for the Historical Satan, Fortress Press, 2011, ISBN 0800663241.
  85. ^ Fiske 1865.
  86. ^ CO Edwardson (2011), Women and Philanthropy, tricksters and soul: re-storying otherness into crossroads of change, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2010, p. 60.
  87. ^ The Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies: Ithaca August 2009, Conference Paper, page 12 [2].
  88. ^ The Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies: Ithaca August 2009, p. 12.
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  90. ^ Sourced originally in R Davis-Floyd, P Sven Arvidson (1997).
  91. ^ R Pettazzoni, The All-Knowing God Taylor & Francis, 1956, ISBN 0405105592.
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  93. ^ J Fiske, Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology, Houghton, Mifflin, 1865.
  94. ^ A. L. Frothingham, "Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I".
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  98. ^ Danubian Historical Studies, 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1988, p. 32.
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  100. ^ a b c d e f g Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867. pp. 411–413.
  101. ^ Neville, Bernie. Taking Care of Business in the Age of Hermes. Trinity University, 2003. pp. 2–5.
  102. ^ Padel, Ruth. In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self. Princeton University Press, 1994. pp. 6–9.
  103. ^ Lucian of Samosata. The Works of Lucian of Samosata. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008. Volume 1, p. 107.
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  105. ^ FG Moore, The Roman's World, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1936, ISBN 0819601551.
  106. ^ "Aventine" in V Neskow, The Little Black Book of Rome: The Timeless Guide to the Eternal City, Peter Pauper Press, Inc., 2012, ISBN 144130665X.
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  108. ^ Scanlon, Thomas Francis. Eros and Greek athletics. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 92–93.
  109. ^ "Circular Pyxis". The Walters Art Museum. 
  110. ^ Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press)
  111. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 6.27.
  112. ^ Hyginus, Fabula 160, makes Hermes the father of Pan.
  113. ^ "Hymn 19 to Pan, To Pan". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 18 January 2016. 
  114. ^ Karl Kerényi, Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p. 175, citing G. Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca ex lapidibus collecta, 817, where the other god's name, both father and son of Hermes, is obscured; according to other sources, Priapus was a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
  115. ^ Bibliotheca 1.9.16.
  116. ^ As presumed by Philostratus the Elder in his Imagines, 1.10.
  117. ^ Eustathius on Homer, 804.
  118. ^ Pausanias, 10.17.5.
  119. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, 680.
  120. ^ This Gigas was the father of Ischenus, who was said to have been sacrificed during an outbreak of famine in Olympia; Tzetzes on Lycophron 42.
  121. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 160.
  122. ^ Clement of Rome, Homilia, 5.16.
  123. ^ Scholia on Euripides, Rhesus, 36.
  124. ^ Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2.12.
  125. ^ Ptolemy Hephaestion, 6 in Photius, 190.
  126. ^ Saon could also have been the son of Zeus and a local nymph; both versions in Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.48.2.
  127. ^ Clement of Rome, Homilia, 5.16; otherwise unknown.
  128. ^ According to Hesiod's Theogony 507–509, Atlas' mother was the Oceanid Clymene, later accounts have the Oceanid Asia as his mother, see Apollodorus, 1.2.3.
  129. ^ According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
  130. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
  131. ^ According to Hesiod's Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
  132. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
  133. ^ According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
  134. ^ Müller, Karl Otfried. Ancient art and its remains: or, A manual of the archæology of art. B. Quaritch, 1852. pp. 483–488.
  135. ^ Hermes the Thief. 
  136. ^ Hyginus. Astronomica, 2.7. Cited in "God of Heralds and Bringer of Peace". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.
  137. ^ "Acts 14:11-13". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 27 January 2016. 
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  142. ^ H Yoshida, Joyce and Jung: The "Four Stages of Eroticism" In a Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Peter Lang, 2006, ISBN 0820469130.
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  146. ^ Gisela Labouvie-Viefn, Psyche and Eros: Mind and Gender in the Life Course Psyche and Eros: Mind and Gender in the Life Course, Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0521468248.
  147. ^ A Samuels (1986). Jung and the Post-Jungians. Taylor & Francis, 1986. ISBN 0710208642. 
  148. ^ López-Pedraza 2003, p. 19.
  149. ^ Allan Beveridge, Portrait of the Psychiatrist as a Young Man: The Early Writing and Work of R.D. Laing, 1927-1960 (p. 88), International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, OUP, ISBN 0199583579.
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References[edit]

External links[edit]

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