Hermes

Hermes
Hermes (/ˈhɜːrmiːz/; Greek: Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus
Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods ( Dionysus
Dionysus being the youngest). Hermes
Hermes was the emissary and messenger of the gods.[1] Hermes
Hermes was also "the divine trickster"[2] and "the god of boundaries and the transgression of boundaries, ... the patron of herdsmen, thieves, graves, and heralds."[3] He is described as moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, and was the conductor of souls into the afterlife.[4] He was also viewed as the protector and patron of roads and travelers.[5] 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 with carvings of the other gods.[6] In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon (see interpretatio romana), Hermes
Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury,[7] who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics such as being the patron of commerce.

Contents

1 Etymology and origins 2 Mythology

2.1 Early Greek sources

2.1.1 Homer
Homer and Hesiod 2.1.2 Athenian tragic playwrights 2.1.3 Aesop 2.1.4 Hymn to Hermes

2.1.4.1 Translations

2.2 Hellenistic Greek sources

3 Epithets of Hermes

3.1 Atlantiades 3.2 Kriophoros 3.3 Argeiphontes 3.4 Messenger and guide 3.5 Trade 3.6 Dolios 3.7 Thief

3.7.1 Patron of thieves

3.8 Additional

4 Worship and cult

4.1 Temples 4.2 Festival

5 Hermai/Herms 6 Hermes's possible offspring

6.1 Pan 6.2 Priapus 6.3 Autolycus

7 Extended list of Hermes's lovers and children 8 Genealogy 9 Art and iconography 10 In other religions

10.1 Christianity

11 Modern interpretation

11.1 Psychology 11.2 Hermes
Hermes series essays

12 Hermes
Hermes in popular culture 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 Further reading 17 External links

Etymology and origins[edit] The earliest form of the name Hermes
Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek *hermāhās,[8] written 𐀁𐀔𐁀 e-ma-a2 (e-ma-ha) in the Linear B syllabic script.[9] Most scholars derive "Hermes" from Greek ἕρμα herma,[10] "prop,[11] heap of stones, boundary marker", from which the word hermai ("boundary markers dedicated to Hermes
Hermes as a god of travelers") also derives.[12] The etymology of ἕρμα itself is unknown, but it is probably not an Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European word.[8] However, the stone etymology is also linked to Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together”). Scholarly speculation that "Hermes" derives from a more primitive form meaning "one cairn" is disputed.[13] In Greek, a lucky find is a ἕρμαιον hermaion. According to one theory that has received considerable scholarly acceptance, Hermes
Hermes himself originated as a form of the god Pan, who has been identified as a reflex of the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European pastoral god *Péh2usōn,[14][15] in his aspect as the god of boundary markers. Later, the epithet supplanted the original name itself and Hermes
Hermes took over the roles as god of messengers, travelers, and boundaries, which had originally belonged to Pan, while Pan himself continued to be venerated by his original name in his more rustic aspect as the god of the wild in the relatively isolated mountainous region of Arcadia. In later myths, after the cult of Pan was reintroduced to Attica, Pan was said to be Hermes's son.[15][16] Other origins have also been proposed. R. S. P. Beekes rejects the connection with herma and suggests a Pre-Greek origin.[8] Other scholars have suggested that Hermes
Hermes may be a cognate of the Vedic Sarama.[17][18] Mythology[edit] Early Greek sources[edit]

Hermes
Hermes with his mother Maia. Detail of the side B of an Attic red-figure belly-amphora, c. 500 BC.

Kriophoros
Kriophoros Hermes
Hermes (which takes the lamb), late-Roman copy of Greek original from the 5th century BC. Barracco Museum, Rome

Homer
Homer and Hesiod[edit] Homer
Homer and Hesiod
Hesiod portrayed Hermes
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
Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector
Hector and accompanied them back to Troy.[19] He also rescued Ares
Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes
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
Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calypso of Zeus' order to free Odysseus
Odysseus from her island to allow him to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus
Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes
Hermes led their souls to Hades.[20] In The Works and Days, when Zeus
Zeus ordered Hephaestus
Hephaestus to create Pandora
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
Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.[21] Athenian tragic playwrights[edit] Aeschylus
Aeschylus wrote in The Eumenides
The Eumenides that Hermes
Hermes helped Orestes
Orestes kill Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra under a false identity and other stratagems,[22] and also said that he was the god of searches, and those who seek things lost or stolen.[23] In Philoctetes, Sophocles
Sophocles invokes Hermes
Hermes when Odysseus needs to convince Philoctetes
Philoctetes to join the Trojan War
Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and in Euripides' Rhesus Hermes
Hermes helps Dolon spy on the Greek navy.[22] Aesop[edit] Aesop
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
Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence.[24] Hymn to Hermes[edit] The Hymn to Hermes[25] 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."[26] Hermes, as an inventor of fire,[27] is a parallel of the Titan Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes
Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, and therefore was a patron of athletes.[28] Translations[edit] In 1820 Shelley translated this hymn.[29] H. G. Evelyn-White's translation, published 1914, is used on the Perseus
Perseus Project.[30] Hellenistic Greek sources[edit] Several writers of the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period expanded the list of Hermes's achievements. Callimachus
Callimachus said that Hermes
Hermes disguised himself as a cyclops to scare the Oceanides and was disobedient to his mother.[31] One of the Orphic Hymns
Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. Aeschylus
Aeschylus had called him by this epithet several times.[32] Another is the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, where his association with the athletic games held in tone is mystic.[33] Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts,[34] and Pseudo-Apollodorus reported several events involving Hermes. He participated in the Gigantomachy
Gigantomachy in defense of Olympus; was given the task of bringing baby Dionysus
Dionysus to be cared for by Ino and Athamas and later by nymphs of Asia, followed Hera, Athena
Athena and Aphrodite
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.[35] The Thracian princes identified him with their god Zalmoxis, considering his ancestor.[36] Anyte of Tegea of the 3rd century BC,[37] in translation by Richard Aldington, wrote:[38]

I Hermes
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
Hermes of the Ways after the patronage of travelers.[39] Epithets of Hermes[edit] Atlantiades[edit] Hermes
Hermes was also called Atlantiades (Greek: Ατλαντιάδης), because his mother, Maia was the daughter of Atlas.[40][41] 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",[42][43] recalls his slaying of the hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes, who was watching over the heifer-nymph Io in the sanctuary of Queen Hera
Hera herself in Argos. Hermes
Hermes placed a charm on Argus's eyes with the caduceus to cause the giant to sleep, after this he slew the giant.[10] 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.[44]

Hermes
Hermes (Diactoros, Angelos)[45] the messenger,[46] is in fact only seen in this role, for Zeus, from within the pages of the Odyssey (Brown 1990).[22]

Oh mighty messenger of the gods of the upper and lower worlds ... (Aeschylus).[47]

explicitly, at least in sources of classical writings, of Euripides Electra and Iphigenia in Aulis[48] and in Epictetus Discourses.[49]

Sarpedon's body carried by Hypnos
Hypnos and Thanatos
Thanatos (Sleep and Death), while Hermes
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
Petasus and Talaria.[50] and also

Hodios, patron of travelers and wayfarers.[42] Oneiropompus, conductor of dreams.[42] Poimandres, shepherd of men.[51] Psychopompos, conveyor or conductor of souls[46][52] and psychogogue, conductor or leader of souls in (or through) the underworld.[53]

Trade[edit]

So-called "Logios Hermes" ( 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.

Agoraeus, of the agora;[54] belonging to the market (Aristophanes)[55] Empolaios, "engaged in traffic and commerce"[56]

Hermes
Hermes is sometimes depicted in art works holding a purse.[57] Dolios[edit]

Dolios, "tricky".[58]

No cult to Hermes
Hermes Dolios existed in Attica, of this Athens
Athens being the capital, and so this form of Hermes
Hermes seems to have existed in speech only.[59][60] The god is ambiguous.[61] According to prominent folklorist Yeleazar Meletinsky, Hermes
Hermes is a deified trickster[62] and master of thieves ("a plunderer, a cattle-raider, a night-watching" in Homers' Hymns)[63] and deception (Euripides)[64] and (possibly evil) tricks and trickeries,[56][65][66][67] crafty (from lit. god of craft),[68] the cheat,[69] the god of stealth.[70]

friendliest to man

and cunning,[71] (see also, to act secretively as kleptein, in reference EL Wheeler), of treachery,[72] the schemer.[73] Hermes
Hermes Dolios, was worshipped at Pellene[74][75] and invoked through Odysseus.[76]

(As the ways of gain are not always the ways of honesty and straightforwardness, Hermes
Hermes obtains a bad character and an in-moral (amoral [ed.]) cult as Dolios)[77]

Hermes
Hermes is amoral[78] like a baby.[79] Although Zeus
Zeus sent Hermes
Hermes as a teacher to humanity to teach them knowledge of and value of justice and to improve inter-personal relationships ("bonding between mortals").[80] Considered to have a mastery of rhetorical persuasion and special pleading, the god typically has nocturnal modus operandi.[81] Hermes knows the boundaries and crosses the borders of them to confuse their definition.[82] 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.[83] According to the late Jungian psychotherapist López-Pedraza, everything Hermes
Hermes thieves, he later sacrifices to the gods.[84] Patron of thieves[edit] Autolycus received his skills as the greatest of thieves due to sacrificing to Hermes
Hermes as his patron.[85] Additional[edit] Other epithets included:

chthonius – at the festival Athenia Chytri sacrifices are made to this visage of the god only.[86][87] cyllenius, born on Mount Kyllini epimelios, guardian of flocks[42] koinos[88] kriophoros, "ram-bearer"[89] ploutodotes, giver of wealth (as inventor of fire)[90] proopylaios, "before the gate", "guardian of the gate",[91] Pylaios, "doorkeeper"[92] strophaios, "standing at the door post"[56][93] 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[54][94][95][96][97] patron of gymnasia[98]

Worship and cult[edit]

Statue of Hermes
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.[99] Angelo (1997) thinks Hermes
Hermes to be based on the Thoth
Thoth archetype.[100] The absorbing ("combining") of the attributes of Hermes
Hermes to Thoth
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).[101][102] 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.[103] During the 3rd century BC, a communication between Petosiris (a priest) to King Nechopso, probably written in Alexandria c. 150 BC, states Hermes
Hermes is the teacher of all secret wisdoms available to knowing by the experience of religious ecstasy.[51][104] 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
Hermes carried the souls of the dead to Hades, and directed the dreams sent by Zeus
Zeus to mortals.[105][106][107] Temples[edit] One of the oldest places of worship for Hermes
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 radiated to the whole of Greece, according to Smith, and his temples and statues became extremely numerous.[105] Lucian of Samosata said he saw the temples of Hermes
Hermes everywhere.[108] 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
Hermes explains why some images in temples and other vessels show him as a teenager. As a patron of the gym and fighting, Hermes
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
Apollo together.[109] A temple within the Aventine was consecrated in 495 BC.[110][111] Symbols of Hermes
Hermes were the palm tree, turtle, rooster, goat, the number four, several kinds of fish and 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,[112] 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 which 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
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.[113] Hermai/Herms[edit] Main article: Herma

This circular Pyxis or box depicts two scenes. The one shown presents Hermes
Hermes awarding the golden apple of the Hesperides to Aphrodite, who Paris has selected as the most beautiful of the goddesses.[114] The Walters Art Museum.

In Ancient Greece, Hermes
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
Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of Hermes
Hermes with a beard. An erect phallus rose from the base. In the more primitive Mount Kyllini
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.[115] 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
Athens itself. Socrates' pupil Alcibiades
Alcibiades was suspected of involvement, and Socrates
Socrates indirectly paid for the impiety with his life.[116] 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
Hermes through the nymph Dryope.[117] In the Homeric Hymn to Pan, Pan's mother fled in fright from her newborn son's goat-like appearance.[118] Priapus[edit] Depending on the sources consulted, the god Priapus
Priapus could be understood as a son of Hermes.[119] Autolycus[edit] Autolycus, the Prince of Thieves, was a son of Hermes
Hermes and Chione (mortal) and grandfather of Odysseus.[120] Extended list of Hermes's lovers and children[edit]

Acacallis

Cydon

Aglaurus

Eumolpus

Amphion[121] Alcidameia of Corinth

Bounos

Antianeira / Laothoe

Echion, Argonaut Eurytus, Argonaut

Apemosyne Aphrodite

Hermaphroditus Tyche
Tyche (possibly)

Astabe, daughter of Peneus

Astacus

Carmentis

Evander

Chione / Stilbe / Telauge[122]

Autolycus

Chryses, priest of Apollo Chthonophyle

Polybus of Sicyon

Crocus Daeira the Oceanid

Eleusis

Dryope, Arcadian nymph

Pan (possibly)

Erytheia (daughter of Geryon)

Norax[123]

Eupolemeia (daughter of Myrmidon)

Aethalides

Hecate

three unnamed daughters[124]

Herse

Cephalus Ceryx (possibly)

Hiereia

Gigas[125]

Iphthime (daughter of Dorus)

Lycus Pherespondus Pronomus

Libye (daughter of Palamedes)

Libys[126]

Ocyrhoe

Caicus

Odrysus[127] Orsinoe, nymph[128]

Pan (possibly)

Palaestra, daughter of Choricus Pandrosus

Ceryx (possibly)

Peitho Penelope

Nomios Pan (possibly)

Persephone
Persephone (unsuccessfully wooed her) Perseus[129] Phylodameia

Pharis

Polydeuces[130] Polymele (daughter of Phylas)

Eudorus

Rhene, nymph

Saon of Samothrace[131]

Sicilian nymph

Daphnis

Sose, nymph

Agreus

Tanagra, daughter of Asopus Theobula / Clytie / Clymene / Cleobule / Myrto / Phaethusa the Danaid

Myrtilus

Therses[132] Thronia

Arabus

Urania, Muse

Linus (possibly)

Unknown mothers

Abderus Angelia Dolops Palaestra

Genealogy[edit]

Hermes's family tree

Uranus

Gaia

Uranus' genitals

Iapetus

Oceanus

Tethys

Cronus

Rhea

Clymene [133]

Pleione

Zeus

Hera

Poseidon

Hades

Demeter

Hestia

Atlas

a [134]

b [135]

Maia

Ares

Hephaestus

Hermes

Metis

Athena
Athena [136]

Leto

Apollo

Artemis

Semele

Dionysus

Dione

a [137]

b [138]

Aphrodite

Art and iconography[edit] Main page: Category: Hermes
Hermes types

Archaic bearded Hermes
Hermes from a herm, early 5th century BC.

Hermes
Hermes Fastening his Sandal, early Imperial Roman marble copy of a Lysippan bronze (Louvre Museum)

The image of Hermes
Hermes evolved and varied according to Greek art and culture. During Archaic Greece
Archaic Greece he was usually depicted as a mature man, bearded, dressed as a traveler, herald, or pastor. During Classical and Hellenistic Greece
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 (Greek: Λόγιος, speaker), his attitude is consistent with the attribute. Phidias
Phidias left a statue of a famous Hermes
Hermes Logios and Praxiteles
Praxiteles another, also well known, showing him with the baby Dionysus
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.[105][139] 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
Hermes was associated with Mercury by the Romans.[105][140] Hyginus explained the presence of snakes, saying that Hermes
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.[141] The caduceus, historically, 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 goddess Ishtar
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.[105] 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
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.[105] 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. Hermes
Hermes has also been depicted with a purse or a bag in his hands, 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
Perseus to kill Medusa.[105] In other religions[edit] Christianity[edit] According to Acts 14, when Paul the Apostle
Paul the Apostle visited the city of Lystra, the people there mistook him for Hermes
Hermes and his companion Barnabas
Barnabas for Zeus.[142] Modern interpretation[edit]

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

Psychology[edit] For Carl Jung
Carl Jung Hermes's role as messenger between realms and as guide to the underworld,[143] made him the god of the unconscious,[144] the mediator between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, and the guide for inner journeys.[145][146] Jung considered the gods Thoth and Hermes
Hermes to be counterparts.[147] In Jungian psychology especially,[148] Hermes
Hermes is seen as relevant to study of the phenomenon of synchronicity[149] (together with Pan and Dionysus):[150][151]

Hermes
Hermes is ... the archetypal core of Jung's psyche, theories ... — DL Merritt[144]

He is identified by some with the archetype of healer,[84] as the ancient Greeks ascribed healing magic to him.[146] In the context of abnormal psychology Samuels (1986) states that Jung considers Hermes
Hermes the archetype for narcissistic disorder; however, he lends the disorder a "positive" (beneficious) aspect, and represents both the good and bad of narcissism.[152] For López-Pedraza, Hermes
Hermes is the protector of psychotherapy.[153] For McNeely, Hermes
Hermes is a god of the healing arts.[154] According to Christopher Booker, all the roles Hermes
Hermes held in ancient Greek thought all considered reveals Hermes
Hermes to be a guide or observer of transition.[155] For Jung, Hermes's role as trickster made him a guide through the psychotherapeutic process.[146] Hermes
Hermes series essays[edit] French philosopher Michel Serres
Michel Serres wrote a set of essays called the Hermes
Hermes series.[156] Hermes
Hermes in popular culture[edit]

See Greek mythology
Greek mythology in popular culture: Hermes

See also[edit]

Hermes
Hermes Trismegistus

Notes[edit]

^ Burkert, p. 158. Iris has a similar role as divine messenger. ^ Burkert, p. 156. ^ Burkert, p. 158. ^ Burkert, pp. 157–158. ^ Lay, p. 3. ^ 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. ^ Bullfinch's Mythology
Mythology (1978), Crown Publishers, p. 926. ^ 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. ^ Joann Gulizio, Hermes
Hermes and e-m-a2 (PDF), University of Texas, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2013, retrieved 26 November 2011 ^ a b Greek History and the Gods. Grand Valley State University (Michigan). ^ ἕρμα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus
Perseus Project. ^ ἑρμαί in Liddell and Scott. ^ Davies, Anna Morpurgo & Duhoux, Yves. Linear B: a 1984 survey. Peeters Publishers, 1985, p. 136. ^ H. Collitz, "Wodan, Hermes
Hermes und Pushan," Festskrift tillägnad Hugo Pipping pȧ hans sextioȧrsdag den 5 November 1924 1924, pp 574–587. ^ a b Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D.Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 411 and 434. ISBN 978-0-19-929668-2. ^ West, Martin Litchfield (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth (PDF). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 281–283. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9. Retrieved 23 April 2017. ^ Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, ed. Félix Guirand & Robert Graves, Hamlyn, 1968, p. 123. ^ Debroy, Bibek (2008). Sarama
Sarama and her Children: The Dog in the Indian Myth. Penguin Books India. p. 77. ISBN 0143064703. ^ Homer. The Iliad. The Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg Etext. Trans. Samuel Butler. ^ Homer. The Odyssey. Plain Label Books, 1990. Trans. Samuel Butler. pp. 40, 81–82, 192–195. ^ Hesiod. Works And Days. ll. 60–68. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914. ^ a b c Norman Oliver Brown (1990). Hermes
Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth. Steiner Books. pp. 3–10. ISBN 978-0-940262-26-3. ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 919. Quoted in God of Searchers. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ 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. ^ "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. ^ Hymn to Hermes
Hermes 13. The word polutropos ("of many shifts, turning many ways, of many devices, ingenious, or much wandering") is also used to describe Odysseus
Odysseus in the first line of the Odyssey. ^ 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) ^ "First Inventors... Mercurius [Hermes] first taught wrestling to mortals." – Hyginus, Fabulae 277. ^ N Richardson, The Homeric Hymns (edited by J Cashford), Penguin UK, 2003, ISBN 0140437827. ^ Perseus
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. ^ Callimachus. Iambi, Frag. 12. Quoted in "God of Memory and Learning". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ Orphic Hymn 57 to Chthonian Hermes
Hermes Aeschylus. Libation
Libation Bearers. Cited in Guide of the Dead. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ Orphic Hymn 28 to Hermes. Quoted in God of Contests, Athletics, Gymnasiums, The Games. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ Phlegon of Tralles. Book of Marvels, 2.1. Quoted in Guide of the Dead. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library. Quoted in Hermes
Hermes Myths 2, Hermes Myths 3, Hermes
Hermes Favour. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ Herodotus. Histories, 5.7. Quoted in "Identified with Foreign Gods". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ SG Yao, Translation and the Languages of Modernism: Gender, Politics, Language, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, ISBN 0312295197. ^ S Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940, University of Texas Press, 2010, p. 323. ^ H Kenner, The Pound Era, Random House, 2011, ISBN 1446467740 and E Gregory, H. D. and Hellenism: Classic Lines, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 253, ISBN 0521430259. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses ^ Mike Dixon-Kennedy (1998). Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology. ABC-CLIO. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-57607-094-9. ^ a b c d The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology
Mythology and Legend. ^ Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia. ^ W. Blackwood Ltd. (Edinburgh). Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Volume 22; Volume 28. Leonard Scott & Co. 1849. ^ R Davis-Floyd, P Sven Arvidson, Intuition: The Inside Story : Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415915945. ^ a b New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology
Mythology (New (fifth impression) ed.). Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1972 [1968]. p. 123. ISBN 0-600-02351-6. ^ Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Études mithriaques: actes du 2e Congrès International, Téhéran, du 1er au 8 september 1975. BRILL, 1978. ^ Perseus
Perseus – Tufts University. ^ Perseus
Perseus – Tufts University. ^ Rochester Institute of Technology. "Greek Gods". Rochester Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. ^ a b M-L von Franz. Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology: Reflections of the Soul. Open Court Publishing, 1985. ISBN 0875484174. ^ JF Krell, "Mythical patterns in the art of Gustave Moreau: The primacy of Dionysus". ^ The Chambers Dictionary Allied Publishers, 1998. ^ a b Mabel Lang (1988). Graffiti in the Athenian Agora
Agora (PDF). Excavations of the Athenian Agora
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. ^ V Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy, Taylor & Francis, 1943. ^ a b c Aristophanes[clarification needed] ^ S. Hornblower; A. Spawforth. The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (p. 370). Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press, 2014, ISBN 0198706774. ^ P Young-Eisendrath, The Cambridge Companion to Jung, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0521685001. ^ I Polinskaya, citing Robert Parker (2003): I Polinskaya, A Local History of Greek Polytheism: Gods, People and the Land of Aigina, 800-400 BCE (p. 103), BRILL, 2013, ISBN 9004262083. ^ An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time - Volume 5 (p. 34), 1779. ^ L Kahn-Lyotard, Greek and Egyptian Mythologies (edited by Y Bonnefoy), University of Chicago Press, 1992, ISBN 0226064549. ^ Meletinsky, Introduzione (1993), p. 131. ^ N. O. Brown, Hermes
Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth ^ NW Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, ISBN 0812236521. ^ "[T]he thief praying...": W Kingdon Clifford, L Stephen, F Pollock ^ William Stearns Davis - A Victor of Salamis: A Tale of the Days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles, Wildside Press LLC, 2007, ISBN 1434483347. ^ A Brown, A New Companion to Greek Tragedy, Taylor & Francis, 1983, ISBN 0389203963. ^ F Santi Russell, Information Gathering in Classical Greece, University of Michigan Press, 1999. ^ 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. ^ EL Wheeler, Stratagem and the Vocabulary of Military Trickery, BRILL, 1988, ISBN 9004088318. ^ R Parker, Polytheism
Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0199216118. ^ Athenaeus, The learned banqueters, Harvard University Press, 2008. ^ I Ember, Music in painting: music as symbol in Renaissance and baroque painting , Corvina, 1984. ^ Pausanias, 7.27.1 ^ Plutarch (trans. William Reginald Halliday), The Greek questions of Plutarch. ^ S Montiglio, Silence in the Land of Logos, Princeton University Press, 2010, ISBN 0691146586. ^ J Pòrtulas, C Miralles, Archilochus and the Iambic Poetry (page 24). ^ JH Riker, Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Psyche, SUNY Press, 1991, ISBN 0791405192. ^ [1]. ^ Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Amoral Politics: The Persistent Truth of Machiavellism (p. 102), SUNY Press, 1995, ISBN 0791422798. ^ "Three Homeric Hymns". ^ L Hyde, Trickster
Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth and Art, Canongate Books, 2008. ^ Andrew Lang, THE HOMERIC HYMNS A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL. Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition. ^ a b R López-Pedraza, Hermes
Hermes and His Children, Daimon, 2003, p. 25, ISBN 3856306307. ^ The Homeric Hymns (pp. 76–77), edited by AN Athanassakis, JHU Press, 2004, ISBN 0801879833. ^ 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. ^ GS Shrimpton, Theopompus The Historian, McGill-Queens, 1991. ^ RA Bauslaugh, The Concept of Neutrality in Classical Greece, University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0520066871. ^ MA De La Torre, A Hernández, The Quest for the Historical Satan, Fortress Press, 2011, ISBN 0800663241. ^ Fiske 1865. ^ CO Edwardson (2011), Women and Philanthropy, tricksters and soul: re-storying otherness into crossroads of change, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2010, p. 60. ^ The Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies: Ithaca August 2009, Conference Paper, page 12 [2]. ^ The Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies: Ithaca August 2009, p. 12. ^ Luke Roman; Monica Roman (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. Infobase Publishing. pp. 232ff. ISBN 978-1-4381-2639-5. ^ Sourced originally in R Davis-Floyd, P Sven Arvidson (1997). ^ R Pettazzoni, The All-Knowing God Taylor & Francis, 1956, ISBN 0405105592. ^ CS Wright, J Bolton Holloway, RJ Schoeck - Tales within tales: Apuleius through time, AMS Press, 2000, p. 23. ^ J Fiske, Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology, Houghton, Mifflin, 1865. ^ A. L. Frothingham, "Babylonian Origin of Hermes
Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus
Caduceus I". ^ P Clarkson, Counselling Psychology: Integrating Theory, Research, and Supervised Practice, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0415145236. ^ WJ Friedlander, The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus
Caduceus Symbol in Medicine, ABC-CLIO, 1992, ISBN 0313280231. ^ J Derrida, Dissemination, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0826476961. ^ Danubian Historical Studies, 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1988, p. 32. ^ Jacobi, M. (1907). Catholic Encyclopedia: "Astrology", New York: Robert Appleton Company. ^ 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. ^ Neville, Bernie. Taking Care of Business in the Age of Hermes. Trinity University, 2003. pp. 2–5. ^ Padel, Ruth. In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self. Princeton University Press, 1994. pp. 6–9. ^ Lucian of Samosata. The Works of Lucian of Samosata. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008. Volume 1, p. 107. ^ Johnston, Sarah Iles. Initiation
Initiation in Myth, Initiation
Initiation in Practice. IN Dodd, David Brooks & Faraone, Christopher A. Initiation
Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and narratives: new critical perspectives. Routledge, 2003. pp. 162, 169. ^ FG Moore, The Roman's World, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1936, ISBN 0819601551. ^ "Aventine" in V Neskow, The Little Black Book of Rome: The Timeless Guide to the Eternal City, Peter Pauper Press, Inc., 2012, ISBN 144130665X. ^ Austin, M. The Hellenistic world from Alexander to the Roman conquest: a selection of ancient sources in translation. Cambridge University Press, 2006. p. 137. ^ Scanlon, Thomas Francis. Eros
Eros and Greek athletics. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 92–93. ^ "Circular Pyxis". The Walters Art Museum. ^ Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press) ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 6.27. ^ Hyginus, Fabula 160, makes Hermes
Hermes the father of Pan. ^ "Hymn 19 to Pan, To Pan". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 18 January 2016. ^ 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
Priapus was a son of Dionysus
Dionysus and Aphrodite. ^ Bibliotheca 1.9.16. ^ As presumed by Philostratus the Elder in his Imagines, 1.10. ^ Eustathius on Homer, 804. ^ Pausanias, 10.17.5. ^ Tzetzes
Tzetzes on Lycophron, 680. ^ This Gigas was the father of Ischenus, who was said to have been sacrificed during an outbreak of famine in Olympia; Tzetzes
Tzetzes on Lycophron 42. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 160. ^ Clement of Rome, Homilia, 5.16. ^ Scholia on Euripides, Rhesus, 36. ^ Pseudo-Hyginus, De Astronomica
De Astronomica 2.12. ^ Ptolemy Hephaestion, 6 in Photius, 190. ^ Saon could also have been the son of Zeus
Zeus and a local nymph; both versions in Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.48.2. ^ Clement of Rome, Homilia, 5.16; otherwise unknown. ^ According to Hesiod's Theogony
Theogony 507–509, Atlas' mother was the Oceanid
Oceanid Clymene, later accounts have the Oceanid
Oceanid Asia as his mother, see Apollodorus, 1.2.3. ^ According to Homer, Iliad
Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey
Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus
Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera
Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony
Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus
Hephaestus was produced by Hera
Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74. ^ According to Hesiod's Theogony
Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena
Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus
Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus
Zeus himself gave birth to Athena
Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony
Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite
Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100. ^ According to Homer, Aphrodite
Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus
Zeus ( Iliad
Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey
Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione ( Iliad
Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100. ^ Müller, Karl Otfried. Ancient art and its remains: or, A manual of the archæology of art. B. Quaritch, 1852. pp. 483–488. ^ Hermes
Hermes the Thief. ^ Hyginus. Astronomica, 2.7. Cited in "God of Heralds and Bringer of Peace". The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. ^ "Acts 14:11-13". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 27 January 2016. ^ A Stevens, On Jung, Taylor & Francis, 1990. ^ a b Merritt, Dennis L. (1996–1997). "Jung and the Greening of Psychology and Education". Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung Newsletter. 6 (1): 9, 12, 13. (Online.) ^ JC Miller, The Transcendent Function: Jung's Model of Psychological Growth Through Dialogue With the Unconscious, SUNY Press, 2004, ISBN 0791459772. ^ a b c DA McNeely, Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods, Fisher King Press, 2011, p. 86, ISBN 1926715543. ^ 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. ^ CG Jung, R Main, Jung on Synchronicity
Synchronicity and the Paranormal, Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0415155096. ^ HJ Hannan, Initiation
Initiation Through Trauma: A Comparative Study of the Descents of Inanna and Persephone: Dreaming Persephone
Persephone Forward, ProQuest, 2005, ISBN 0549474803. ^ R Main, Revelations of Chance: Synhronicity as Spiritual Experience, SUNY Press, 2007, ISBN 0791470237. ^ 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. ^ A Samuels (1986). Jung and the Post-Jungians. Taylor & Francis, 1986. ISBN 0710208642. ^ López-Pedraza 2003, p. 19. ^ 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. ^ Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0826452094. ^ LD Kritzman, The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought (p. 658), edited by LD Kritzman, BJ Reilly, Columbia University Press, 2007, ISBN 0231107900.

References[edit]

Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-674-36281-0. Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2). Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus
Perseus Digital Library. Homer, The Iliad
Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus
Perseus Digital Library. Homer; The Odyssey
Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus
Perseus Digital Library. Lay, M. G., James E. Vance Jr.; Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them, Rutgers University Press, 1992, ISBN 0813526914. Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus
Perseus Digital Library.

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