Hermes, A Compendium of the Ancient Gods

Hermes was the messenger of the gods, the conductor of souls to the underworld (psychopompos), the patron of travelers and merchants and (with a winking acceptance that the Greeks found amusing) of thieves, the protector of flocks and of the wayside herm — the boundary-marker that bore his name and his bearded head atop a square pillar with phallus carved beneath. He was a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, and his career began with extraordinary precocity: on the first day of his life, he stole his half-brother Apollo's cattle, drove them backwards (so that their tracks would point the wrong way), invented the lyre by stretching strings across a tortoise-shell, and returned to his cradle to feign infancy. When Apollo, having tracked him by divine power, came in fury to demand his cattle back, the infant Hermes denied everything with such charm that Apollo was won over; the lyre was given as compensation; the cattle were returned; and Hermes was admitted to Olympus as the youngest of the gods.

His offices were various and well-suited to his nature. As messenger of Zeus, he traveled freely between Olympus, the earth, and the underworld; his winged sandals (the talaria) and winged cap (the petasos) and golden rod (the caduceus, with its two intertwined serpents) were his attributes. As psychopompos, he led the souls of the dead down to Hades; as protector of merchants and travelers, he was honored at every roadside and at every market; as patron of athletes (he was credited with inventing wrestling and other sports), he was honored at the gymnasia. As patron of communication and language, he was the patron of interpreters, of orators, of writers, and (in late antiquity) of the alchemical and esoteric tradition that took his name (Hermes Trismegistus, treated under Thoth in Volume II).

He was the father of Pan (by the nymph Dryope, in some accounts), of Hermaphroditus (by Aphrodite), of Autolycus (the great trickster, grandfather of Odysseus), and many others. His role in heroic narratives was that of facilitator and rescuer: he brought Pandora to Epimetheus, gave Perseus the magical implements with which to behead Medusa, conducted Priam through the Greek camp to Achilles to ransom Hector's body, freed Odysseus from Calypso's island. He was generally well-liked among the gods; he was the Olympian most accessible to mortals, the most genially helpful, the least implacable. His Roman counterpart Mercury preserved his commercial and messenger functions but lost some of his Greek complexity.

Curator’s note

What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay

The principal source is the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (Hymn 4, late seventh or early sixth century BCE), one of the great comic religious poems of antiquity, treating his birth, the cattle-theft, the invention of the lyre, and his admission to Olympus. He appears throughout Homer (most notably as the conductor of Priam in Iliad 24 and as the rescuer of Odysseus in Odyssey 5). The herm — the square pillar with bearded head and ithyphallic carving — was a distinctive Greek cult-object, set at boundaries, crossroads, and house-doors; the famous mutilation of the herms at Athens in 415 BCE (on the eve of the Sicilian Expedition) was a religious scandal that contributed to the political difficulties of Alcibiades and the ultimate disaster of the expedition.

Kin in the sources

Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.

Child ofZeusHe was a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, born in a cave on Mount Cyllene
Sibling ofApolloon the first day of his life, he stole his half-brother Apollo's cattle
Rival ofApolloon the first day of his life, he stole his half-brother Apollo's cattle
Parent ofPanHe was the father of Pan (by the nymph Dryope, in some accounts)
Consort ofAphroditeof Hermaphroditus (by Aphrodite), of Autolycus (the great trickster, grandfather of Odysseus)
Companion ofPerseusgave Perseus the magical implements with which to behead Medusa
Companion ofPriamconducted Priam through the Greek camp to Achilles to ransom Hector's body
Companion ofOdysseusconducted Priam through the Greek camp to Achilles to ransom Hector's body, freed Odysseus from Calypso's island
Named as the same god asThoth(Hermes Trismegistus, treated under Thoth in Volume II)
Parent ofEros (Later)by Ares, in most accounts; by Hermes, in some; with no father, in still others
Named as the same god asHermes TrismegistusThe figure was a syncretism of the Greek Hermes (treated in Volume III) and the Egyptian Thoth

The same god in other rooms

The ancient sources themselves name these as one god under different names. See Thoth, Hermes and Hermes Trismegistus hung together

When the sources speak

Dated witnesses for Hades and the Lesser Olympians. A date marks when the evidence was written down, not when the belief began. The whole timeline

c. 1600–1100 BCE: Mycenaean palace tablets in Linear B record offerings and divine names, but little continuous myth.
c. 1100–800 BCE: Post-palatial oral traditions and changing cult landscapes precede the surviving alphabetic epics.
late 8th–7th centuries BCE: The Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiodic Theogony and Works and Days give influential but non-exclusive divine orders.
7th–6th centuries BCE: Homeric Hymns, lyric poetry, colonization, and local sanctuary traditions multiply regional narratives.
6th–5th centuries BCE: Orphic, Pythagorean, and mystery materials develop alternative cosmogonies and afterlife doctrines.
5th century BCE: Athenian tragedy and comedy recast heroic houses and divine justice for civic audiences.
4th century BCE: Philosophers, antiquarians, and local historians interpret or criticize inherited myth.
323–31 BCE: Hellenistic poets and scholars systematize variants across an enlarged Greek world.