Hermes - mythology

Hermes

In ancient Greece, Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia. There were several of the name in Egypt and elsewhere. Even the accounts of the Greek Hermes vary. He was a precocious youth. When four hours old he escaped from his cradle, twisted the entrails of a sheep into strips, which he stretched across a tortoise shell for a sounding board, thus inventing the lyre. This he concealed in his cradle. At nightfall, being hungry, he started out to seek food, binding his feet with branches of myrtle and tamarisk to conceal his tracks. He stole fifty oxen from Apollo and drove them backward and forward, so that it could not be told which way they were traveling, and concealed them in a cave. Two he roasted, eating a part, and sacrificing the rest to the gods. Apollo missed his cattle but could not find them. An old man told him that he had seen a boy driving a herd of oxen in a peculiar manner. Satisfied that Hermes was the culprit, Apollo tracked him up Mt. Olympus into the presence of Zeus. Zeus was rather amused at his for­ward youngster, but ordered him to make restitution. Hermes then showed Apollo his lyre, and succeeded in trading it to the delighted Apollo for a half interest in the oxen. Apollo gave Hermes a goad with which to drive and presented him with a messenger's wand. The latter was a staff of olive wood, encircled by two twining serpents and having a pair of wings at one end.

Hermes corresponds to Mercury of the Romans. He was the herald, messenger, and ambassador of the gods. He bound Prometheus to Mt. Caucasus, killed the hundred-eyed Argus, and liberated the wandering Iole. He arranged for the meeting of the three goddesses, to one of whom Paris was to give the apple inscribed "To the fairest." He conducted souls to the lower world, caused dreams, and woke the slumbering. He had grace, beauty, and plaus­ible manners. He was practical and cunning. It cost him no effort to tell the truth or an untruth, and none to forget what he had said.

Hermes was worshipped as the god of music, dreams, theft, science, commerce, invention, and as the patron of travelers and rogues. He protected herdsmen, the tor­toise, pig, lamb and goat, the ibis and the gull. The palm tree, blackthorn, and purslane were sacred to him. In the best day of Greek art he was represented as an athletic, beardless youth, with a careless, happy, crafty countenance. He had little if any drapery. A cloak hung on his farther shoulder; his boots were winged, indicating his swiftness as a messenger. He held a purse of money in his hand; a tor­toise, a palm tree, and a goat were placed at his side. The statues of the god were provided with lamps. As night fell the worshiper who desired the god's favor filled and lit a lamp, at the same time not forgetting to leave a small coin for the priesthood.