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Greek God Hermes,
Messenger of the gods. |
Greek god Hermes is the Messenger of the gods; god of commerce, thieves, eloquence and streets. He is fast and cunning, allowing him to move unnoticed among the mortal humans. In the heroic poem of Iliad is known as "the bringer of good luck". He is sometimes acts as representative of the gods for transferring messages to mortals humans and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. Symbols include a staff entwined with two snakes (the caduceus), winged sandals and cap. He has six children: Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche, Abderus, Autolycus, and Angelia.
Birth and the invention of the Lyre
He is son of Greek God
Zeus, ruler of the Gods, and the nymph Maia. According to Bibliotheca,
Zeus mate with Maia. She later born god Hermes in a cave on Kyllene. He is the second-youngest Olympian, just older than Dionysus. After his birth, he escaped and made went to Pieria, where he stole some cattle that Greek God
Apollo was tending. To avoid capturing, he created tracks that led them to Pylos. There, outside the cave he found a turtle feeding. He cleaned it out, and he stretched the strings made from the stolen cattle across the shell of the turtle, inventing the lyre and along with plectrum. However,
god Apollo figured it out, grabbed Hermes and went to
Zeus to complain. The rulers of gods laughed, ignored the complains, and didn't punish Hermes. To apologize for his actions, god Hermes gave to god
Apollo his lyre.
Agent of Zeus
In many Greek Myths, Hermes was acting as the personal Messenger of
Greek god Zeus. For example, in his wending god
Zeus (with goddess
Hera) invited all the Greek gods, the humans, and the animals to the marriage. For this task he used god Hermes, as he was responsible of delivering the messages. In other cases he was enforcer of
Zeus. For example, he was responsible of chaining Prometheus as a punishment for stealing the fire or the slaying of the hundred eyed giant Argos Panoptes.
Zeus also used him for other jobs including as Thief, Merchant, and Guide of the Dead.
