Hermes

//Hermes// Messenger for the Gods God of shepards, lands travel, merchants, weights and measures, oratory, literature, athletics, and thieves. His symbols include the winged shoes, the tortoise, the lyre, and the rooster.

WHO HERMES IS:  ·  He transported messages from the Gods to the mortal world.  ·  He protects and takes care of all travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones, and thieves.  ·  He is athletics and watches out for those with injuries.  ·  He uses shoes with wings on them, enabling him to fly.  ·  He was the youngest of the Olympian Gods. HERMES’ MYTH: Hermes was born in a small cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia of Greece. In the middle of the night the great Zeus came to Mount Cyllene and impregnated a nymph (his mother Maia) who gave birth to Hermes the very next morning. However, when Maia wrapped Hermes in swaddling bands and went to sleep, Hermes escaped to his brother Apollo’s grazing fields in Thessaly. There Hermes stole some of Apollo’s cattle, took them to a grotto outside the city of Pylos, and covered their tracks. He then took a tortoise, killed and removes it’s innards, and along with the intestines of one of the  stolen cows and the tortoise shell, was able to make the first lyre. He then went back to the cave and wrapped himself back up in the swaddling bands, hoping his excursion went unnoticed. However, Apollo immediately knew that Hermes ad stolen his cattle and went directly to Maia to tell herm but Maia couldn’t believe him for Hermes was still wrapped up in his swaddling bands. Zeus then intervened, saying that he had been watching Hermes the entire time and told Hermes to give Apollo his cattle back. While a an altercation raged, out of nowhere, Hermes began to play his lyre. Totally lured by the sweet sound of the instrument, Apollo presented that Hermes could keep the cattle in exchange for the lyre. Hermes later became the great master of the instrument. HERMES DUTIES: Hermes’ primary duty was to transport messages from the Gods in Mount Olympus to the humans in the mortal world. This job also required Hermes to guide the souls of the dead to the underworld, which later developed into the word psychopomp (one who conducts spirits or souls to the other world). Hermes was also responsible to settle argument (with the use of his instruments); attributed by the symbol of two snakes along a winged wand. It is said that Hermes once separated two fighting snakes with his staff which was decorated with ribbons which were later exchanged for the snakes and the wand became the symbol for the settlement of quarrels. One other huge duty that Hermes had was to watch over all who traveled the land and protector of all roads and boundaries.

HERMES REPRESENTATION: Although Hermes was primarily known for being the messenger for the Gods, there are many other things that Hermes was attributed to. Hermes (along with Athena) was the utmost representation of divinity in classical Greece, having created the lyre, the flute, and pipes, and being a great man of literature. However, Hermes was also a trickster, patron of roads and boundaries, known for his great swiftness and athleticism a herder of flocks (Epilmelius), a giver of charm (Charidotes), a schemer (Dolios), and a luck bringer (Eriounious). In Athens herms were placed outside for good luck, and as a protest to war as to bring bad omens on the journey of the soilders for offending the god of travel. HERMES CHILDREN: As like many other gods, Hermes had numerous affairs with other goddesses, nymphs, and mortals. It is believed though that Hermes had manu children these three are confirmed; Pan, Aberdus, and Hermaphroditus. The mother of Pan (Dryop, daughter of King Dryop) was so terrified by her son at birth that she fled, so Hermes took the boy to Mount Olympus where the gods laughed at his appearance and made him the god of fields, woods, sheppards, and flocks. Aberdus was a companion of Heracles who once left him in charge of a brutal beast (Mares of Diomedes) which devoured him. Hermaphroditus (aka Aphroditus) was the child of Hermes and Aphrodite who was an androgynous deity.

HERMES’ ADVENTURES: Some of Hermes’ adventures are these: Hermes once aided Perseus in killing the gorgon Medusa by giving Perseus his winged sandals, Zeus’ sickle, and Hades’ helmet of invisibility so that Medusa’s sisters could not see him. Hermes brought Eruydice back to Hates once Orpheus failed to bring her back to life in the story of the musician Orpheus. On greater levels, Hermes set Zeus’ lover Io free from the hundred-eyed giant Argus who had been ordered by one of Zeus’s wife Hera to look over her. Hermes enchanted the giant with his flute, and while sleeping, Hermes cut of its head. Hermes also used his abilities and ingenuity to persuade the nymph Calypso to set Odysseus free from her charms.

HERMES TODAY: One of the most recognized attributes to Hermes today is his symbol of the winged shoes. Used as the symbol for the cross country and some shoe companies, it symbolized the idea of running so fast and swift that you’ll fly, which is what Hermes did, fly. In Greece, a lucky find was a //hermaion// and it gives us the word hermeneutics; the art of interpreting hidden meanings.

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