Hermes

* Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Dionysus, Heracles, Minos, Epaphus, Pollux (half-brothers)
* Athena, Artemis, Eris, Aphrodite, Persephone, Hebe, Eileithyia, Keroessa, Helen (half-sisters)
* Pan, Autolycus (sons)
* Silenus (grandson)
* Anticlea, Polymede (granddaughters)
* Odysseus and Jason (great-grandsons)

## Physical description

### Base color

Orange

In Greek mythology, **Hermes** (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμῆς, *Hermḗs*) is the ancient Greek god of roads, journeys, travelers, shepherds, athletes, messengers, merchants, trade, commerce, thieves, and trickery; the messenger of the gods, a *psychopomp* (meaning it's his job to lead the souls of the dead to the Underworld), and a member of the twelve Olympians.

His Roman equivalent is the god Mercury.

## Overview

He is the son of Zeus and Maia, is the half-brother of Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite (possibly), Ares, Hephaestus, Artemis, Apollo, and Dionysus, and has the distinction of being very young compared to the other Olympian gods (only Dionysus is younger than him).

Hermes is an old god, already attested in Mycenaean Greek, and perhaps even older than that; a theory has been proposed that he and Pan, a rustic god of the wilderness probably started off as the same god which in time (but still before we got any written records of it) split in the two. In later mythology, Hermes and Pan are still very closely connected to each other, usually described as father and son, and sharing many traits.

Hermes features a lot in Greek mythology, and due to his versatility, speed and mobility he also has influenced a lot of modern Western society, from brands to namesakes to his caduceus being (erroneously) used as a medicine symbol.

## Miscellaneous Myths

### Hermes

Hermes was born from the union of the Pleiad nymph Maia and Zeus, the king of the Olympians, in Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Hermes was said to have been mischievous and cunning and demonstrated this literally hours after his birth. His first course of action was to find and kill a tortoise then turn its shell into a lyre. Hermes soon found himself craving for food, and he ventures off to steal fifty of his half-brother Apollo's sacred cattle, though he makes sure to reverse their hooves to make it appear as though they are walking backwards. Hermes takes the cattle and sets a fire so he can not only feed himself but also sacrifice the meat to the gods to gain their attention. His mother questions him on his actions to which Hermes, still as an infant, explains that he wishes to be honored and respected by the gods instead of living in a cave.

Apollo, however, soon discovers that his sacred cattle was missing and after a long search he tracks the culprit to the cave where he finds Hermes himself. Apollo demands that Hermes return his cattle but Hermes, being the conniving trickster that he is, insists that he is a mere infant and knows nothing about his dilemma with the cattle. Apollo then brings the infant Hermes to Zeus to face the consequences for his actions but Zeus finds the situation rather hilarious than serious. In the end, Zeus tells Hermes to guide Apollo to the cows and on the way Hermes was able to win Apollo over by playing his lyre for him. Apollo was quite impressed and enchanted with Hermes' skill on the lyre that he secures him a seat among the Olympians, appointing him as messenger of the gods, and will be honored alongside his mother. Apollo also gives him the caduceus in exchange to never rob him again. Hermes promises.

Hermes makes several appearances through Greek mythology; in *the Iliad* he sides with the Greeks and helps King Priam navigate through the Greek camp when he goes to ask for his son Hector's body; in *the Odyssey* Hermes provides regular help to his great-grandson Odysseus and in the myth of Io he frees her by killing Argus, which earns him the epithet "Argeiphontes", the killer of Argus. Hermes often helps various heroes with the means of trickery, as god of liars and thieves; and while that might seem unheroic, heroes were not always brawn and muscles; many times they had to use their brains as well.

Hermes is closely related to his mythological son Pan, a half-god half-human rustic god of fertility, nature, shepherds and flocks, the wild and groves. Pan is very old, and traces of his origins and development are often blurry. It's unclear what Pan's deal was pre-Greece, but the Vedic god Pūṣan to whom he is related was characterized as a god of marriage, road and journey, cattle-herding, the sun, travel, pastoralism, goats and was a psychopomp, a leader of the dead souls to the Underworld. If original Pan was anything like Pūṣan, then he probably split in or before Mycenaean times into Pan (who took the herds, forest and wilderness) and Hermes (who got the roads and journeys, herding and soul-leading). Hermes and Pan are naturally very connected; in many versions, they are father and son, and they both share a "large penis" imagery.

This brings us to the herms: herms (lit: "piles of stone") were boundary and border markers in the shape of steels with Hermes' head and penis found along roadways connected to Hermes' name. Before the sculpted statues, roads were marked with large heaps of piled stones, which, despite not being humanoid, were not any less sacred and revered; it was common to add another stone to the pile or anoint it with oil. Pan was probably revered through the herms, and perhaps a Hermes-related epithet he might had had split from him to form an entirely new deity in the form of Hermes. Hermes is attested in Mycenaean records as (𐀁𐀔𐁀, *e-ma-\*25*), either Hermes himself or something related to him, like a festival, meaning the split happened long before we have any written sources on it. By the 800s BC Hermes was properly established given his role in *the Iliad*.

In early Greek art, Hermes was not too dissimilar to Pan; despite not having goat legs, between the period of 800s BC- 500s BC Hermes was depicted in pottery as a mature, bearded man. In Classical and Hellenistic Greece, on the other hand, Hermes was always a youthful, athletic beardless man, the image we recognise now. As for the Romans, while they already had their own pantheon with gods that had development independently from their Greek equivalents (for example, Ares's counterpart Mars had agricultural associations), there wasn't really anything for Hermes. The name Romans gave Hermes, "Mercurius", etymologically is derived either from the Latin word for "merchant" or an older word meaning "boundary". This name has no other history before that.

During Roman era, Mercury was extremely important as the god of trade and travel in an empire that kept expanding. When he Romans took over the Celts, Mercury was syncretized with Lugh, a great warrior and creator of all arts, and when it came to Germanic peoples, Mercury was equated to Odin. The Ptolemaic Greeks in Egypt on the other hand syncretized Hermes with gods like Thoth and Anubis. Hermes also turns up a lot in many Aesop fables.

In short, Hermes due to his versatility and mobility is an extremely iconic god, which is why he is still part of modern society.

### Io

Following Io's transformation into a cow and her placement under Argus' guard by Hera, Zeus ordered Hermes to free the transformed princess. Io disguised himself as a humble shepherd, and caught Argus' attention by playing the panpipes. Hermes lulled Argus to sleep with a long story of the creation of panpipes (a story that stars Pan) and a little help from his caduceus. Once Argus fell asleep, Hermes freed Io, and, for good measure, killed Argus too. Hera was furious.

### Typhon

When the monstrous Typhon attacked Mount Olympus, all gods fled terrified while transformed into animals; Hermes turned into an ibis. Later, after Typhon defeated Zeus and removes his sinews, Hermes with the help of Pan found the sinews and restored Zeus to full power.

### Hades and Persephone

After Demeter causes an unparalleled famine following Hades' abduction of her daughter Persephone, Zeus decides to return the girl to her mother and orders Hermes to fetch her. Hermes scoots down to the Underworld where he explains to Hades and Persephone the situation above; Hades lets Persephone go, and Hermes leads her back to the land of the living.

### Ares' Abduction

Ares, the god of war, was abducted by the Aloadae brothers, Ephialtes and Otus, following their raid on Mount Olympus on their failed mission to capture and marry the goddesses Hera and Artemis respectively. A whole lunar year later (thirteen months) Hermes set out to free Ares; he and Artemis went to the lair of the giants, and as Artemis distracted and killed them, Hermes found the jar Ares was kept in and freed him.

### Aphrodite's Affair

When Hephaestus trapped Ares and Aphrodite in chains, Hermes and Apollo arrived on the scene, making fun of the unfortunate couple and posing for selfies next to them.

### Hyacinthus

After Apollo accidentally kills his boyfriend Hyacinthus, he goes to Dionysus' bar to drown his sorrows as Hermes tries to comfort him.

### The Theogony

A baby Hermes appears, the product of Zeus's liaison with the Pleiad Maia.

### Dionysus

In some versions, it's Hermes who takes care of the infant Dionysus, the only Olympian canonically younger than himself.

### Nerites

Hermes doesn't appear on-screen, but near the end he steals the remote, causing a similarly off-screen Apollo to turn Nerites into a shrimp.

### Pandora

All gods were said to have given Pandora a particular gift; Hermes taught her how to lie and deceive.

## Classics Summarized

### The Odyssey

In *the Odyssey*, Hermes helps Odysseus defeat Circe by giving him a herb that makes him immune to her magic.

## Physical appearance

Hermes is light orange-colored, with tints of light brown. His hair is blond and usually concealed underneath his winged hat. He also wears winged sandals and carries his winged caduceus. His base color is similar to that of his half-brother and paternal grandfather.

## Appearances

The Iliad

The Odyssey

Perseus

Hyacinthus

[Pandora

Dionysus

Arachne (cameo)

The Theogony (Greek Creation Myth)

Aphrodite (cameo)

Nerites (off-screen)

Hermes

Io

Typhon

Ares' Abduction

Hades and Persephone

Aphrodite's Affair

## Notes

1. ↑ This story is an example of *interpretatio graeca*; Hermes turns into an ibis, the animal motif of the Egyptian god Thoth, who was considered to be by the Ancient Greeks the Egyptian Hermes.

## Gallery

Hermes being split from Pan sometime in the Mycenean age