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[[Image:Hermes by Praxiteles.jpg|thumb|200px|Hermes bearing the infant [[Dionysus]], by [[Praxiteles]]]]
'''Hermes''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{polytonic|ʽἙρμῆς}} [[IPA]] {{IPA|[her'me:s]}}), in [[Greek mythology]],
:"of many shifts, 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."
As a translator, Hermes is the messenger from the gods to humans. An interpreter who bridges the boundaries with strangers is a ''hermeneus.'' Hermes gives us our word "[[hermeneutics]]" for the art of interpreting hidden meaning. In Greek a lucky find was a ''hermaion''.
Hermes as an inventor of fire<ref>In the [[Homeric hymn]], on his first day of existence "after he had well-fed the loud-bellowing cattle with fodder and driven them into the byre, close-packed and chewing lotus and began to seek the art of fire. He chose a stout laurel branch and trimmed it with the knife..."</ref> is a parallel of the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]], [[Prometheus]]. In addition to the [[syrinx]] and the [[lyre]], Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sport of [[boxing]], and therefore was a patron of athletes. Modern mythographers have connected Hermes with the [[trickster]] gods of other cultures.
Hermes also served as a [[psychopomp]], or an escort for the dead to help them find their way to the [[afterlife]] (the [[Underworld]] in the Greek myths). In many Greek myths, Hermes was depicted as the only god besides [[Hades]] and [[Persephone]] who could enter and leave the Underworld without hindrance.
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In the fully-developed Olympian pantheon, Hermes was the son of [[Zeus]] and the [[Pleiades (mythology)|Pleiade]] [[Maia (mythology)|Maia]], a daughter of the [[Titan]] [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]. Hermes' symbols were the [[rooster]] and the [[tortoise]], and he can be recognized by his purse or pouch, winged sandals, winged cap, and the herald's staff, the ''[[caduceus]]''. Hermes was the god of thieves because he was very cunning and shrewd and was a thief himself from the night he was born, when he slipped away from Maia and ran away to steal his elder brother [[Apollo]]'s cattle.
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==Etymology==
The name ''Hermes'' has been thought to be derived from the Greek word ''[[herma]]'' (ἕρμα), which denotes a square or rectangular pillar with the head of Hermes (usually with a beard) adorning the top of the pillar, and male genitals below; however, due to the god's attestation in the Mycenaean pantheon, as ''Hermes Araoia'' ("Ram Hermes") in [[Linear B]] inscriptions at [[Pylos]] and Mycenaean [[Knossos]] (Ventris and Chadwick), the connection is more likely to have moved the opposite way, ''from'' deity ''to'' pillar representations. From the subsequent association of these cairns — which were used in [[Athens]] to ward off evil and also as road and boundary markers all over Greece — Hermes acquired patronage over land travel.
==Cult==
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Among the [[Greeks|Hellene]]s, as the related word ''[[herma]]'' ("a boundary stone, crossing point") would suggest, Hermes embodied the spirit of crossing-over: He was seen to be manifest in any kind of interchange, transfer, transgressions, transcendence, transition, transit or traversal, all of which activities involve some form of crossing in some sense. This explains his connection with transitions in one’s fortunes -- with the interchanges of goods, words and information involved in trade, interpreting, oratory, writing -- with the way in which the wind may transfer objects from one place to another, and with the transition to the afterlife.
[[Image:Mercurybyhendrickgoltzius.jpeg|thumb|left|200px|''Mercury'' by [[Hendrick Goltzius]], 1611 (Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem)]]
Originally, Hermes was depicted as an older, bearded, phallic god, but in the 6th century BCE, the traditional Hermes was reimagined as an athletic youth (''illustration, top right''). Statues of the new type of Hermes stood at stadiums and [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasiums]] throughout Greece.
===[[Herma|Hermai]]/Herms===
:''Main article: ''[[Herma]]''.
In very ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form ''[[herma]],'' was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones; each traveller added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BCE, [[Hipparchus (tyrant)|Hipparchos]], the son of [[Pisistratus]], replaced the [[cairn]]s that marked the midway point between each village ''[[deme]]'' at the central ''[[agora]]'' of Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of Hermes with a [[beard]]. An erect [[phallus]] rose from the base. In the more primitive [[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 [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] god is astounding," [[Walter Burkert]] remarked (Burkert 1985).
In [[415 BCE]], when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] during the [[Peloponnesian War], all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized. The Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from Syracuse or from the anti-war faction within Athens itself. [[Socrates]]' pupil [[Alcibiades]] was suspected to have been involved, and Socrates indirectly paid for the impiety with his life.
From these origins, [[
===Hermes' [[iconography]]===
Hermes was usually portrayed wearing a broad-brimmed traveller's hat or a winged cap (''[[petasus]]''), wearing winged sandals (''[[talaria]]''), and carrying his Near Eastern herald's staff -- either a ''[[caduceus]]'' entwined by copulating [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpents]], or a ''kerykeion'' topped with a symbol similar to the [[astrological]] symbol of [[Taurus]] the bull. Hermes wore the garments of a traveler, worker, or shepherd. He was represented by purses or bags, roosters (''illustration, left''), and tortoises.
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===[[Priapus]]===
The god [[Priapus]] was
===[[Eros]]===
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##[[Echion (Argonaut)|Echion]]
#[[Aphrodite]]
##[[Eunomia]]
##[[Hermaphroditus]]
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##[[Cephalus]]
##(Also [[Ceryx]])
#[[Krokus (mythology)|Krokus]]
#[[Pandrosus]]
##[[Ceryx]]
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King [[Atreus]] of [[Mycenae]] retook the throne from his brother [[Thyestes]] using advice he received from the trickster Hermes. Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that [[Zeus]] accomplished. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes.
=="Hermes" in Islamic tradition==▼
[[Antoine Faivre]], in ''The Eternal Hermes'' has pointed out that Hermes has a place in the [[Islam|Islamic]] tradition, though his name does not appear in the [[Qur'an]]. [[Hagiographer]]s and chroniclers of the first centuries of the Islamic [[Hijra (Islam)|Hegira]] quickly identified Hermes with [[Idris (prophet)|Idris]], the ''nabi'' of [[Sura|surahs]] 19.57; 21.85, whom the [[Arabs]] also identify with [[Enoch]] (cf. Genesis 5.18-24). Indris/Hermes is called "Thrice Wise,"( [[Hermes Trismegistus]]) because he was threefold: the first of the name, comparable to [[Thoth]], was a "civilizing hero," an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science in [[Egyptian hieroglyph|hieroglyphs]]. The second Hermes, in [[Babylon]], was the initiator of [[Pythagoras]]. The third Hermes was the first teacher of [[Alchemy]]. "A faceless prophet," writes the Islamicist [[Pierre Lory]] "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major figures of the Bible and the Quran." '' (Faivre 1995 pp.19-20)▼
==Hermes Trismegistus==
:''Main article: [[Hermes Trismegistus]]''.
In the Hellenistic and then Greco-Roman culture of [[Alexandria]],
▲=="Hermes" in Islamic tradition==
▲[[Antoine Faivre]], in ''The Eternal Hermes'' has pointed out that Hermes has a place in the [[Islam|Islamic]] tradition, though his name does not appear in the [[Qur'an]]. [[Hagiographer]]s and chroniclers of the first centuries of the Islamic [[Hijra (Islam)|Hegira]] quickly identified Hermes with [[Idris (prophet)|Idris]], the ''nabi'' of [[Sura|surahs]] 19.57; 21.85, whom the [[Arabs]] also identify with [[Enoch]] (cf. Genesis 5.18-24). Indris/Hermes is called "Thrice Wise,"( [[Hermes Trismegistus]]) because he was threefold: the first of the name, comparable to [[Thoth]], was a "civilizing hero," an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science in [[Egyptian hieroglyph|hieroglyphs]]. The second Hermes, in [[Babylon]], was the initiator of [[Pythagoras]]. The third Hermes was the first teacher of [[Alchemy]]. "A faceless prophet," writes the Islamicist [[Pierre Lory]] "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major figures of the Bible and the Quran." '' (Faivre 1995 pp.19-20)
==Hermes in popular culture==
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Hermes was played by actor [[Michael Gwynn]] in [[Jason and the Argonauts (film)]], 1963, directed by [[Don Chaffey]] and famous for the work of [[Ray Harryhausen]].
In the [[Walt Disney]] animated feature ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'' (1997), Hermes was comically
In [[Andrei Konchalovsky]]'s 1997 television adaptation of
[[Ingeborg Bachmann Prize]]-winning author [[Sten Nadolny]]'s 1998 comic novel, ''The God of Impertinence'', tells of Hermes being freed in the late 20th Century after being trapped in a [[volcano]] for 2000 years.
The 2006 fantasy novel ''[[Herald]]'', by [[N.F. Houck]], is an autobiographical depiction of Hermes telling his own story and history. In the novel, Hermes also retells many Greek and Roman myths from his
point of view.
==Notes==
<references/>
==External links==
*[http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HermesCult.html Cult of Hermes]
*[http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html Ventris and Chadwick: Gods found in Mycenaean Greece]: a table drawn up from Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, ''Documents in Mycenaean Greek'' second edition (Cambridge 1973)
*[http://hermesandme.blogspot.com Hermes and Me: An Online Blog-Novel]: Features Hermes leading a Greek youth on a tour of Mythical Greece.
==References==
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