When Achilles killed Hector, Hermes guided Priam, Hector’s father, to Achilles’s tent, helping him pass unnoticed by use of his golden staff, with which he made all guards on his passage fall asleep.Īfter the end of the Trojan War, Zeus sent Hermes to Mycenae to warn Aegisthus that his plan to kill Agamemnon on his return from Troy was against the gods’ will. Hermes also escorted Pandora to Epimetheus, who kept her as his wife, and thus all mischiefs in this world began.Īfter the Great Flood, Zeus sent Hermes to Deucalion to announce to him that he could have any wish come true Deucalion asked that a new generation of man be born, which was granted. When Hades took Persephone to the Underworld, Zeus sent Hermes to convince him to let her return to the Upper World and then takes her on his chariot and back to Demeter, her mother. Hermes often acts as a messenger and guide in myths: Hermes asks Apollo to grant him, in return, dominion over the flocks and shepherds, which Apollo does. Apollo is amused and forgives Hermes, who gives Apollo the lyre as a present. Apollo is still angry at his brother, so Hermes brings out his lyre and starts singing about the gods’ birth feats. Hermes continued to lie even before his father, and only when Zeus got serious did he accept the verdict of revealing the location of the cattle. Apollo finally traced him and took him to Olympus to be judged by Zeus. On that same day, he also stole fifty cows from the flock of Apollo, his older brother, and cunningly obscured the cattle’s tracks to avoid being caught. On the day he was born, Hermes is said to have created the first lyre by using a turtle’s shell, an ox’s skin, wood and a sheep’s intestines as chords. Zeus slept with Maia one night while she was in her cave, and ten months later she gave birth to Hermes. Hermes was the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, one of the Pleiades. Pan, Hermaphroditus, Abderus, Angelia, Autolycus, Tyche Talaria (winged sandals), Caduceus, Tortoise, Lyre, RoosterĪres, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hephaestus Trade, Thieves, Travelers, Sports, Athletes, Border Crossings As a messenger, he is eloquent and has clear and concise speech. He is a friend of mortals and often intercedes between mortals and the gods. Hermes is a youthful, trickster god, clever but cunning. Hermes is associated with the lyre (a type of ancient harp), which he is said to have invented, with the rooster. It can both make someone fall asleep as well as awaken him and could even bring one back from the dead. His wand is entwined by two serpents and sometimes has wings at the top. Hermes is depicted as a young man, sometimes bearded but others without a beard, wearing a wide-brimmed hat (petasus), winged sandals (talaria) and carrying a magical wand (caduceus) and a purse. A herma (a pillar surmounted by a head that has a phallus at the corresponding height) was placed at crossings, borders, towns, and on thresholds as a good omen and protection from evil. He is also associated with fertility, luck and prosperity, roads and borders. He also protected the herds, as well as small animals. He was the patron of many, sometimes of conflicting interests, among whom herdsmen, merchants, thieves, travellers and athletes, and had an interest in music and prophecy. He escorted the souls of the dead to Charon (the boatman who carried the dead across the river that divided the two worlds), to be transported across the river Styx to Hades. Hermes was the Olympian god of trade, travel, commerce, eloquence, thieves, athletes, messenger of the gods and guide of the souls to the Underworld.
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