Hermes

The earliest form of the name {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermes}} ({{lang|grc|Ἑρμῆς}}) is the Mycenaean Greek *{{lang|gmy-Latn|hermāhās}},{{cite book |first=R.S.P. |last=Beekes |others=With the assistance of Lucien van Beek |title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00beek |url-access=limited |publisher=Brill |year=2010 |place=Leiden, Boston |pages=[https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00beek/page/n255 461]–2|isbn=978-90-04-17418-4}} written {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀁𐀔𐁀}}}} {{lang|gmy-Latn|e-ma-a₂}} ({{lang|gmy-Latn|e-ma-ha}}) in the Linear B syllabic script.{{citation |author=Joann Gulizio |url=http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/publications/pdf/hermes.pdf |title=Hermes and e-m-a₂ |publisher=University of Texas |access-date= 26 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005042939/http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/publications/pdf/hermes.pdf |archive-date=5 October 2013 }} Other forms of the name of Hermes are {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermeias}} ({{lang|grc|Ἑρμείας}}), {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermaōn}} ({{lang|grc|Ἑρμάων}}), {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermān}} ({{lang|grc|Ἑρμᾱν}}), {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermaios}} ({{lang|grc|Ἓρμαιος}}), {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermaỵos}} ({{lang|grc|Ἓρμαιυος}})Nilsson, Vol I p.502 Most scholars derive Hermes from Greek {{lang|grc|ἕρμα}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|herma}}), 'stone heap'.{{R|Powell|pp=177}} {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermax}}, ('heap of stones'),[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De(%2Frmac ἕρμαξ] {{lang|grc-Latn|hermaīon}}, ('gift of Hermes'),[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De(%2Frmaion hermaion] {{lang|grc-Latn|hermaīos}} hill were holy to Hermes.

The etymology of {{Lang|grc|ἕρμα}} itself is unknown, but is probably not a Proto-Indo-European word. R. S. P. Beekes rejects the connection with {{lang|grc-Latn|herma}} and suggests a Pre-Greek origin. However, the stone etymology is also linked to Indo-European {{lang|ine-x-proto|ser-}} ('to bind, put together'). Scholarly speculation that Hermes derives from a more primitive form meaning 'one cairn' is disputed.{{cite book |author-link=Anna Morpurgo Davies |last=Davies |first=Anna Morpurgo |author2=Yves Duhoux |title=Linear B: a 1984 survey |publisher=Peeters Publishers |year=1985 |page=136 }} Other scholars have suggested that Hermes may be a cognate of the Vedic Sarama.Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, ed. Félix Guirand & Robert Graves, Hamlyn, 1968, p. 123.{{cite book |last=Debroy |first=Bibek |title=Sarama and her Children: The Dog in the Indian Myth |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-14-306470-1 |page=77}}

It is likely that Hermes is a pre-Hellenic god, though the exact origins of his worship, and its original nature, remain unclear. Frothingham thought the god to have existed as a Mesopotamian snake-god, similar or identical to Ningishzida, a god who served as mediator between humans and the divine, especially Ishtar, and who was depicted in art as a caduceus.Frothingham, A.L. (1916). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/497115 "Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402035930/http://www.jstor.org/stable/497115 |date=2 April 2017 }}. AJA 20.2, 175‐211. Angelo (1997) thinks Hermes to be based on the Thoth archetype.{{cite book|author=Petrūska Clarkson|title=Counselling Psychology: Integrating Theory, Research, and Supervised Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqqA8irfMvsC&pg=PA24|year=1998|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-14523-7|page=24}} The absorbing ("combining") of the attributes of Hermes to Thoth developed after the time of Homer amongst Greeks and Romans; Herodotus was the first to identify the Greek god with the Egyptian (Hermopolis) (Plutarch and Diodorus also did so), although Plato thought the gods were dissimilar (Friedlander 1992).{{cite book |author=Walter J. Friedlander |title=The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PFT3qb_tyEC&pg=PA69 |year=1992 |publisher=ABC-Clio |isbn=978-0-313-28023-8 |page=69 }}.{{cite book |author=Jacques Derrida |author-link=Jacques Derrida |title=Dissemination |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8lmHmVW12EC&pg=PA89 |year=2004 |publisher=A & C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-7696-8 |page=89 }}

His cult was established in Greece in remote regions, likely making him originally a god of nature, farmers, and shepherds. It is also possible that since the beginning he has been a deity with shamanic attributes linked to divination, reconciliation, magic, sacrifices, and initiation and contact with other planes of existence, a role of mediator between the worlds of the visible and invisible.Danubian Historical Studies, 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1988, p. 32. According to a theory that has received considerable scholarly acceptance, Hermes originated as a form of the god Pan, who has been identified as a reflex of the Proto-Indo-European pastoral god {{lang|ine-x-proto|Péh₂usōn}},H. Collitz, "Wodan, Hermes und Pushan," Festskrift tillägnad Hugo Pipping på Hans sextioårsdag den 5 November 1924 1924, pp 574–587.{{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |last2=Adams |first2=D.Q. |title=The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordintroducti00mall |url-access=limited |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-0-19-929668-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordintroducti00mall/page/n435 411] and 434 }} in his aspect as the god of boundary markers. The PIE root {{lang|ine-x-proto|peh₂}} 'protect' also shows up in Latin {{lang|la|pastor}} 'shepherd' (whence the English pastoral). A zero grade of the full PIE form — {{lang|ine-x-proto|ph₂usōn}} — yields the name of the Sanskrit psychopomp Pushan, who, like Pan, is associated with goats.Beekes, R. (2006) Etymological Dictionary of Greek p. 600 Later, the epithet supplanted the original name itself and Hermes took over the role of psychopomp and as god of messengers, travelers, and boundaries, which had originally belonged to Pan, while Pan himself continued to be venerated by his original name in his more rustic aspect as the god of the wild in the relatively isolated mountainous region of Arcadia. In later myths, after the cult of Pan was reintroduced to Attica, Pan was said to be Hermes's son.{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Martin Litchfield |author-link=Martin Litchfield West |title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-0-19-928075-9 |url=http://library.globalchalet.net/Authors/Poetry%20Books%20Collection/Indo-European%20Poetry%20and%20Myth.pdf |pages=281–283 |access-date=23 April 2017 |archive-date=17 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417103355/http://library.globalchalet.net/Authors/Poetry%20Books%20Collection/Indo-European%20Poetry%20and%20Myth.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Image:AGMA Tête d'Hermès.jpg

The image of Hermes evolved and varied along with Greek art and culture. In Archaic Greece he was usually depicted as a matured and bearded man, who dressed as a traveler, herald and shepherd. This image remained common on the Hermai, which served as boundary markers, roadside markers, and grave markers, as well as votive offerings.

In Classical and Hellenistic Greece, Hermes was usually depicted as a young, athletic man lacking a beard. When represented as Logios (Greek: Λόγιος, speaker), his attitude is consistent with the attribute. Phidias left a statue of a famous Hermes Logios and Praxiteles another, also well known, showing him with the baby Dionysus in his arms.

File:Hermes (Mercury) at the Getty Villa (bronze copy of a Roman bronze).jpg copy of a Roman bronze recovered from the Villa of the Papyri, Naples]]

At all times, however, through the Hellenistic periods, Roman, and throughout Western history into the present day, several of his characteristic objects are present as identification, but not always all together.Müller, Karl Otfried. [https://archive.org/details/ancientartandit01welcgoog Ancient art and its remains: or, A manual of the archæology of art]. B. Quaritch, 1852. pp. 483–488.{{Better source needed|date=May 2021|reason=The sources are from over a 150 years ago.}} Among these objects is a wide-brimmed hat, the petasos, widely used by rural people of antiquity to protect themselves from the sun, and that in later times was adorned with a pair of small wings; sometimes this hat is not present, and may have been replaced with wings rising from the hair.

File:Statue Hermes Chiaramonti.jpg and a voyager's cloak, and carrying the caduceus and a purse; Roman copy after a Greek original (Vatican Museums)]]

Another object is the caduceus, a staff with two intertwined snakes, sometimes crowned with a pair of wings and a sphere.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzNfeQSXKfcC|title=Hermes the Thief|isbn=978-0-940262-26-3|last1=Brown|first1=Norman Oliver|year=1990|publisher=SteinerBooks }} The caduceus, historically, appeared with Hermes, and is documented among the Babylonians from about 3500 BC. Two snakes coiled around a staff was also a symbol of the god Ningishzida, who, like Hermes, served as a mediator between humans and the divine (specifically, the goddess Ishtar or the supreme Ningirsu). In Greece, other gods have been depicted holding a caduceus, but it was mainly associated with Hermes. It was said to have the power to make people fall asleep or wake up, and also made peace between litigants, and is a visible sign of his authority, being used as a sceptre.{{Better source needed|date=May 2021}} A similar-appearing but distinct symbol is the Rod of Asclepius, associated with the patron of medicine and son of Apollo, Asclepius, which bears only one snake. The Rod of Asclepius, occasionally conflated with the caduceus in modern times, is used by most Western physicians as a badge of their profession. After the Renaissance, the caduceus also appeared in the heraldic crests of several, and currently is a symbol of commerce.{{Better source needed|date=May 2021}}

Hermes's sandals, called pédila by the Greeks and talaria by the Romans, were made of palm and myrtle branches but were described as beautiful, golden and immortal, made by sublime art, able to take the roads with the speed of wind. Originally, they had no wings, but late in the artistic representations, they are depicted. In certain images, the wings spring directly from the ankles. Hermes has also been depicted with a purse or a bag in his hands, wearing a robe or cloak, which had the power to confer invisibility. His weapon was a harpe, which killed Argos; it was also lent to Perseus to kill Medusa and Cetus.

Hermes began as a god with strong chthonic, or underworld, associations. He was a psychopomp, leader of souls along the road between "the Under and the Upper world". This function gradually expanded to encompass roads in general, and from there to boundaries, travelers, sailors, commerce, and travel itself.{{Cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=Patricia O'Connell |title=World History: Our Human Story |last2=Holdren |first2=John |date=May 2021 |publisher=Sheridan Kentucky |isbn=978-1-60153-123-0 |location=Versailles, Kentucky |pages=115}}

{{One source section|date=May 2021}}

Beginning with the earliest records of his worship, Hermes has been understood as a chthonic deity (heavily associated with the earth or underworld). As a chthonic deity, the worship of Hermes also included an aspect relating to fertility, with the phallus being included among his major symbols. The inclusion of phallic imagery associated with Hermes and placed, in the form of herma, at the entrances to households may reflect a belief in ancient times that Hermes was a symbol of the household's fertility, specifically the potency of the male head of the household in producing children.

File:Thanatos Painter ARV 1228 11 Charon receiving Hermes and a deceased woman (07).jpg with punt pole standing in his boat, receiving Hermes psychopompos who leads a deceased woman. Thanatos Painter, ca. 430 BC]]

The association between Hermes and the underworld is related to his function as a god of boundaries (the boundary between life and death), but he is considered a psychopomp, a deity who helps guide souls of the deceased to the afterlife, and his image was commonly depicted on gravestones in classical Greece.

File:Herma Hermes Getty Villa 79.AA.132.jpg

{{Further|Herm (sculpture)|Liminal deity}}

In Ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form herma, was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones and each traveler added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BC, Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, replaced the cairns 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 a bearded Hermes. 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. "That a monument of this kind could be transformed into an Olympian god is astounding," Walter Burkert remarked.Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press) In Athens, herms were placed outside houses, both as a form of protection for the home, a symbol of male fertility, and as a link between the household and its gods with the gods of the wider community.

In 415 BC, on the night when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for 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's pupil Alcibiades was suspected of involvement, and one of the charges eventually made against Socrates which led to his execution 16 years later was that he had either corrupted Alcibiades or failed to guide him away from his moral corruption.Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 6.27.

In association with his role as a psychopomp and god who is able to easily cross boundaries, Hermes is predominantly worshiped as a messenger, often described as the messenger of the gods (since he can convey messages between the divine realms, the underworld, and the world of mortals).{{Better source needed|date=May 2021|reason=Source may be outdated}} As a messenger and divine herald, he wears winged sandals (or, in Roman art influenced by Etruscan depictions of Turms, a winged cap).{{cite web |url=http://people.rit.edu/asg1478/iweb/midterm/hermes.html|author=Rochester Institute of Technology |title=Greek Gods |publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525090414/http://people.rit.edu/asg1478/iweb/midterm/hermes.html |archive-date=25 May 2013}}

File:Hermes crioforo.jpg, Rome]]

Hermes was known as the patron god of flocks, herds, and shepherds, an attribute possibly tied to his early origin as an aspect of Pan. In Boeotia, Hermes was worshiped for having saved the town from a plague by carrying a ram or calf around the city walls. A yearly festival commemorated this event, during which a lamb would be carried around the city by "the most handsome boy" and then sacrificed, in order to purify and protect the city from disease, drought, and famine. Numerous depictions of Hermes as a shepherd god carrying a lamb on his shoulders (Hermes kriophoros) have been found throughout the Mediterranean world, and it is possible that the iconography of Hermes as "The Good Shepherd" had an influence on early Christianity, specifically in the description of Christ as "the Good Shepherd" in the Gospel of John.Freeman, J. A., Jefferson, L. M., & Jensen, R. M. (2015). The Good Shepherd and the Enthroned Ruler: A Reconsideration of Imperial Iconography in the Early Church. The Art of Empire. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.

The earliest written record of Hermes comes from Linear B inscriptions from Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos dating to the Bronze Age Mycenaean period. Here, Hermes's name is rendered as e‐ma‐a (Ἑρμάhας). This name is always recorded alongside those of several goddesses, including Potnija, Posidaeja, Diwja, Hera, Pere, and Ipemedeja, indicating that his worship was strongly connected to theirs. This is a pattern that would continue in later periods, as worship of Hermes almost always took place within temples and sanctuaries primarily dedicated to goddesses, including Hera, Demeter, Hecate, and Despoina.RADULOVI, IFIGENIJA; VUKADINOVI, SNEŽANA; SMIRNOVBRKI, ALEKSANDRA – Hermes the Transformer Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em debate, núm. 17, 2015, pp. 45–62 Universidade de Aveiro. Aveiro, Portugal. [https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3210/321037735002.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907143318/https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3210/321037735002.pdf|date=7 September 2021}} (PDF link)

In literary works of Archaic Greece, Hermes is depicted both as a protector and a trickster. In Homer's Iliad, Hermes is called "the bringer of good luck", "guide and guardian", and "excellent in all the tricks".Homer. The Iliad. The Project Gutenberg Etext. Trans. Samuel Butler. In Hesiod's Works and Days, Hermes is depicted giving Pandora the gifts of lies, seductive words, and a dubious character.Hesiod. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4oACZ5aTlu8C&q=Works+And+Days+Hugh+G.+Evelyn-White Works And Days]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. ll. 60–68. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914.

The earliest known theological or spiritual documents concerning Hermes are found in the {{Circa|7th century BC}} Homeric Hymns. In Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes describes the god's birth and his theft of Apollo's sacred cattle. In this hymn, Hermes is invoked as a god "of many shifts" (polytropos), associated with cunning and thievery, but also a bringer of dreams and a night guardian.Hymn to Hermes 13. He is said to have invented the chelys lyre,Homeric hymn to Hermes as well as racing and the sport of wrestling."First Inventors... Mercurius [Hermes] first taught wrestling to mortals." – Hyginus, Fabulae 277.

File:Achilles embassy Louvre G264 n3.jpg]]

The cult of Hermes flourished in Attica, and many scholars writing before the discovery of the Linear B evidence considered Hermes to be a uniquely Athenian god. This region had numerous Hermai, or pillar-like icons, dedicated to the god marking boundaries, crossroads, and entryways. These were initially stone piles, later pillars made of wood, stone, or bronze, with carved images of Hermes, a phallus, or both. In the context of these herms, by the Classical period Hermes had come to be worshiped as the patron god of travelers and sailors. By the 5th century BC, Hermai were also in common use as grave monuments, emphasizing Hermes's role as a chthonic deity and psychopomp. This was probably his original function, and he may have been a late inclusion in the Olympic pantheon; Hermes is described as the "youngest" Olympian, and some myths, including his theft of Apollo's cows, describe his initial coming into contact with celestial deities. Hermes therefore came to be worshiped as a mediator between celestial and chthonic realms, as well as the one who facilitates interactions between mortals and the divine, often being depicted on libation vessels.

Due to his mobility and his liminal nature, mediating between opposites (such as merchant/customer), he was considered the god of commerce and social intercourse, the wealth brought in business, especially sudden or unexpected enrichment, travel, roads and crossroads, borders and boundary conditions or transient, the changes from the threshold, agreements and contracts, friendship, hospitality, sexual intercourse, games, data, the draw, good luck, the sacrifices and the sacrificial animals, flocks and shepherds and the fertility of land and cattle.Smith, William. [https://books.google.com/books?id=b8gOAAAAYAAJ&q=dictionary+of+greek+and+roman+biography+and+mythology Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429233506/https://books.google.com/books?id=b8gOAAAAYAAJ&q=dictionary+of+greek+and+roman+biography+and+mythology |date=29 April 2023 }}. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867. pp. 411–413.Neville, Bernie. [http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/Vol%202/Vol2_1/Bneville.pdf Taking Care of Business in the Age of Hermes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720060443/http://trinity.edu/org/tricksters/TrixWay/current/Vol%202/Vol2_1/Bneville.pdf |date=20 July 2011 }}. Trinity University, 2003. pp. 2–5.Padel, Ruth. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qCtd2ux19MwC&q=In+and+Out+of+the+Mind:+Greek+Images+of+the+Tragic+Self In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055829/https://books.google.com/books?id=qCtd2ux19MwC&q=In%20and%20Out%20of%20the%20Mind%3A%20Greek%20Images%20of%20the%20Tragic%20Self |date=12 April 2023 }}. Princeton University Press, 1994. pp. 6–9.

In Athens, Hermes Eion came to represent the Athenian naval superiority in their defeat of the Persians, under the command of Cimon, in 475 BC. In this context, Hermes became a god associated with the Athenian empire and its expansion, and of democracy itself, as well as all of those closely associated with it, from the sailors in the navy, to the merchants who drove the economy. A section of the agora in Athens became known as the Hermai, because it was filled with a large number of herms, placed there as votive offerings by merchants and others who wished to commemorate a personal success in commerce or other public affair. The Hermai was probably destroyed in the Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC).

There was a popular, now lost play by the tragedian Astydamas with Hermes as the primary subject.

Image:Hermes-louvre3.jpg, early Imperial Roman marble copy of a Lysippan bronze (Louvre Museum)]]

As Greek culture and influence spread following the conquests of Alexander the Great, a period of syncretism or interpretatio graeca saw many traditional Greek deities identified with foreign counterparts. In Ptolemaic Egypt, for example, the Egyptian god Thoth was identified by Greek speakers as the Egyptian form of Hermes. The two gods were worshiped as one at the Temple of Thoth in Khemenu, a city which became known in Greek as Hermopolis.Bailey, Donald, "Classical Architecture" in Riggs, Christina (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 192. This led to Hermes gaining the attributes of a god of translation and interpretation, or more generally, a god of knowledge and learning. This is illustrated by a 3rd-century BC example of a letter sent by the priest Petosiris to King Nechopso, probably written in Alexandria c. 150 BC, stating that Hermes is the teacher of all secret wisdoms, which are accessible by the experience of religious ecstasy.Jacobi, M. (1907). Catholic Encyclopedia: [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02018e.htm "Astrology"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721112505/http://newadvent.org/cathen/02018e.htm |date=21 July 2017 }}, New York: Robert Appleton Company.

An epithet of Thoth found in the temple at Esna, "Thoth the great, the great, the great",Hart, G., The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 2005, Routledge, second edition, Oxon, p 158 became applied to Hermes beginning in at least 172 BC. This lent Hermes one of his most famous later titles, {{lang|grc-Latn|Hermes Trismegistus}} ({{lang|grc|Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος}}), 'thrice-greatest Hermes'.Copenhaver, B. P., "Hermetica", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, p xiv. The figure of Hermes Trismegistus would later absorb a variety of other esoteric wisdom traditions and become a major component of Hermeticism, alchemy, and related traditions.Fowden, G., "The Egyptian Hermes", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987, p 216

As early as the 4th century BC, Romans had adopted Hermes into their own religion, combining his attributes and worship with the earlier Etruscan god Turms under the name Mercury. According to St. Augustin, the Latin name "Mercury" may be a title derived from "medio currens", in reference to Hermes's role as a mediator and messenger who moves between worlds. Mercury became one of the most popular Roman gods, as attested by the numerous shrines and depictions in artwork found in Pompeii.Beard, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town at 295–298 In art, the Roman Mercury continued the style of depictions found in earlier representations of both Hermes and Turms, a young, beardless god with winged shoes or hat, carrying the caduceus. His role as a god of boundaries, a messenger, and a psychopomp also remained unchanged following his adoption into the Roman religion (these attributes were also similar to those in the Etruscan's worship of Turms).{{cite book|chapter=Turms étrusque et la fonction de « minister » de l'Hermès italique |pages=171–217 |title=Mercure romain : Le culte public de Mercure et la fonction mercantile à Rome de la République archaïque à l'époque augustéenne |last=Combet-Farnoux |first=Bernard |date=1980 |publisher=École française de Rome }}

File:Casa dei vettii, vestibolo, oechus affrescato sul peristilio, issione legato alla ruota da vulcano alla presenza di giunone 02.jpg]]

The Romans identified the Germanic god Odin with Mercury, and there is evidence that Germanic peoples who had contact with Roman culture also accepted this identification. Odin and Mercury/Hermes share several attributes in common. For example, both are depicted carrying a staff and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and both are travelers or wanderers. However, the reasons for this interpretation appear to go beyond superficial similarities: Both gods are connected to the dead (Mercury as psychopomp and Odin as lord of the dead in Valhalla), both were connected to eloquent speech, and both were associated with secret knowledge. The identification of Odin as Mercury was probably also influenced by a previous association of a more Odin-like Celtic god as the "Celtic Mercurius".Schjødt, J. P. Mercury–Wotan–Óðinn: One or Many?. Myth, Materiality, and Lived Religion, 59.

A further Roman Imperial-era syncretism came in the form of Hermanubis, the result of the identification of Hermes with the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis. Hermes and Anubis were both psychopomps the primary attribute leading to their conflation as the same god. Hermanubis depicted with a human body and a jackal head, holding the caduceus. In addition to his function of guiding souls to the afterlife, Hermanubis represented the Egyptian priesthood the investigation of truth.Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 61Diodorus, Bibliotheca historica i.18, 87

Beginning around the turn of the 1st century AD, a process began by which, in certain traditions Hermes became euhemerised – that is, interpreted as a historical, mortal figure who had become divine or elevated to godlike status in legend. Numerous books of wisdom and magic (including astrology, theosophy, and alchemy) were attributed to this "historical" Hermes, usually identified in his Alexandrian form of Hermes Trismegistus. As a collection, these works are referred to as the Hermetica.Faivre, A. (1995). The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus. Red Wheel/Weiser.

Though worship of Hermes had been almost fully suppressed in the Roman Empire following the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I in the 4th century AD, Hermes continued to be recognized as a mystical or prophetic figure, though a mortal one, by Christian scholars. Early medieval Christians such as Augustine believed that a euhemerised Hermes Trismegistus had been an ancient pagan prophet who predicted the emergence of Christianity in his writings.{{cite book|last1=Heiser|first1=James D.|title=Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century|date=2011|publisher=Repristination Press|location=Malone, Tex.|isbn=978-1-4610-9382-4|edition=1st}}{{Cite journal|title = Enoch in the Islamic Tradition|last = Jafar|first = Imad|date = 2015|journal = Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity|volume = XXXVI}} Some Christian philosophers in the medieval and Renaissance periods believed in the existence of a "prisca theologia", a single thread of true theology that could be found uniting all religions.Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, pp 14–18 and pp 433–434Hanegraaff, W. J., "New Age Religion and Western Culture", SUNY, 1998, p 360 Christian philosophers used Hermetic writings and other ancient philosophical literature to support their belief in the prisca theologia, arguing that Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary of Moses,Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, p 27 and p 293 or that he was the third in a line of important prophets after Enoch and Noah.Yates, F., "Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition", Routledge, London, 1964, p52Copenhaver, B.P., "Hermetica", Cambridge University Press, 1992, p xlviii

The 10th-century Suda attempted to further Christianize the figure of Hermes, claiming that "He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there is one divine nature in the trinity."Copenhaver, Hermetica, p. xli

File:Ancient Mieza, Macedonian tombs of Lefkadia, The Tomb of Jugdement 545fddcedb8f434cdb346f41dbd838ec.jpg, 4th century BC]]

There are only three temples known to have been specifically dedicated to Hermes during the Classical Greek period, all of them in Arcadia. Though there are a few references in ancient literature to "numerous" temples of Hermes,Lucian of Samosata. The Works of Lucian of Samosata. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008. Volume 1, p. 107. this may be poetic license describing the ubiquitous herms, or other, smaller shrines to Hermes located in the temples of other deities. One of the oldest places of worship for Hermes was Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, where some myths say he was born. Tradition holds that his first temple was built by Lycaon. From there, the Hermes cult would have been taken to Athens, from which it radiated to the whole of Greece. In the Roman period, additional temples to Hermes (Mercury) were constructed across the Empire, including several in modern-day Tunisia. Mercury's temple in Rome was situated in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills, and was built in 495 BC.Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2:21

In most places, temples were consecrated to Hermes in conjunction with Aphrodite, as in Attica, Arcadia, Crete, Samos and in Magna Graecia. Several ex-votos found in his temples revealed his role as initiator of young adulthood, among them soldiers and hunters, since war and certain forms of hunting were seen as ceremonial initiatory ordeals. This function of Hermes explains why some images in temples and other vessels show him as a teenager.

As a patron of the gym and fighting, Hermes had statues in gyms and he was also worshiped in the sanctuary of the Twelve Gods in Olympia where Greeks celebrated the Olympic Games. His statue was held there on an altar dedicated to him and Apollo together.Johnston, Sarah Iles. Initiation in Myth, Initiation in Practice. IN Dodd, David Brooks & Faraone, Christopher A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PuIIMV570jIC&q=Initiation+in+ancient+Greek+rituals+and+narratives:+new+critical Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and narratives: new critical perspectives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054858/https://books.google.com/books?id=PuIIMV570jIC&q=Initiation+in+ancient+Greek+rituals+and+narratives:+new+critical |date=12 April 2023 }}. Routledge, 2003. pp. 162, 169.

A temple within the Aventine was consecrated in 495 BC.F. G. Moore, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MgP4xdCPey4C&dq=gods+of+Trade&pg=PA126 The Roman's World] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054856/https://books.google.com/books?id=MgP4xdCPey4C&dq=gods+of+Trade&pg=PA126 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1936, {{ISBN|0-8196-0155-1}}."Aventine" in V Neskow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wo3VYXQ0QV0C&dq=Aventine&pg=PA143 The Little Black Book of Rome: The Timeless Guide to the Eternal City] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054854/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wo3VYXQ0QV0C&dq=Aventine&pg=PA143 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Peter Pauper Press, Inc., 2012, {{ISBN|1-4413-0665-X}}.

Pausanias wrote that during his time, at Megalopolis people could see the ruins of the temple of Hermes Acacesius.{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:8.30.6 |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.30.6 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616050823/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:8.30.6 |url-status=live }}

In addition, the Tricrena (Τρίκρηνα, meaning Three Springs) mountains at Pheneus were sacred to Hermes, because three springs were there and according to the legend, Hermes was washed in them, after birth, by the nymphs of the mountain.{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:8.16.1 |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.16.1 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616050654/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:8.16.1 |url-status=live }}

Furthermore, at Pharae there was a water sacred to Hermes. The name of the spring was Hermes's stream and the fish in it were not caught, being considered sacred to the god.{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:7.22.4 |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7.22.4 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616051534/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-grc1:7.22.4 |url-status=live }}

Sacrifices to Hermes involved honey, cakes, pigs, goats, and lambs. In the city of Tanagra, it was believed that Hermes had been nursed under a wild strawberry tree, the remains of which were held there in the shrine of Hermes Promachus,{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.22&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.22.2 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126093229/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.22&fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 |url-status=live }} and in the hills Phene ran three waterways that were sacred to him, because he was believed to have been bathed there at birth.

Hermes's feast was the Hermaia, which was celebrated with sacrifices to the god and with athletics and gymnastics, possibly having been established in the 6th century BC, but no documentation on the festival before the 4th century BC survives. However, Plato said that Socrates attended a Hermaea. Of all the festivals involving Greek games, these were the most like initiations because participation in them was restricted to young boys and excluded adults.Scanlon, Thomas Francis. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nHoX3hY6WFsC&q=Eros+and+Greek+athletics Eros and Greek athletics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429233504/https://books.google.com/books?id=nHoX3hY6WFsC&q=Eros+and+Greek+athletics |date=29 April 2023 }}. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 92–93.

In Boeotia there was a fest at Tanagra, and two temples. The first of Hermes kriophoros (ram-bearer) who was related to the festival and the second of Hermes promachos (champion)[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.22.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 9.22.1] At Coroneia there was a sunctuary of Hermes epimelios(keeper of the flocks) [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.34.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 9.34.3] and at Corseia a grove with a statue of Hermes.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.24.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 9.24.5] In Attica Hermes was worshiped together with other gods, especially with the nymphs. Inscriptions from the islands indicate that there were festivals of Hermes at Chios and Crete, where he had the epithet dromios (of the race-course).Nilsson, Vol.I, p.502 In Corinth he had a temple and two bronze statues[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.2.8&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 2.2.8] and at Pherai an oracular shrine and a spring of Hermes agoraios (of the market)[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+7.22.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 7.22.2] Hermes was specially worshiped at Pheneos where he had a temple and the games "Hermaia" were celebrated.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D14%3Asection%3D10 Pausanias 8.14.10]

At Pellene there was an statue of Hermes dolios and an old established race.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+7.27.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 7.27.1] At Kyllene the statue of Hermes was a phallos.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+6.26.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 6.26.5] Near Tegea there was the temple of Hermes, Aepytus. At Megalopolis there was a temple of Hermes Akakesios, and a second near a stadium for athletic games.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+8.47.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 Pausanias 8.47.4] The myth of the birth of Hermes is related to the mountain Kyllene near Pheneos and the god had the surname Kyllenios. Pindar refers to games of Hermes at Kyllene that seem to be similar to the games of Pheneos.

File:Man wearing Petasos Coinage of Kapsa Macedon circa 400 BCE.jpg, Macedon, c. 400 BC.]]

Hermes's epithet Argeïphontes ({{langx|grc|Ἀργειφόντης}}; {{langx|la|Argicida}}), meaning "slayer of Argus",{{cite book |title=The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend}}Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia. recalls the slaying of the hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes by the messenger god. Argus was watching over the heifer-nymph Io in the sanctuary of Queen Hera, herself in Argos. Hermes placed a charm on Argus's eyes with the caduceus to cause the giant to sleep, after which he slew the giant with a harpe.{{cite book |url=http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory%26gods.htm |title=Greek History and the Gods |publisher=Grand Valley State University (Michigan) |access-date=8 April 2012 |archive-date=29 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229074056/https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory%26gods.htm |url-status=live }} The eyes were then put into the tail of the peacock, a symbol of the goddess Hera.

An Homeric form is diaktoros Argeïphontes.({{langx|grc|διάκτορος ἀργειφόντης}}). Frisk derives "argophontes" from "argos" (argipous), "fast" frequently for dogs. Sanskrit rirẚ, rji-pya, "fast flying", Armenian arevi. The meaning seems similar to the epithet of Hermes kynagches, dog-throttler. "Diaktor" (from -kter, kill) indicates a god of death.Nilsson, Vol I p.501 A1[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dkuna%2Fgxhs Liddel Scott]

• Aipytos, with a temple at Tegea in Arcadia.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.502
• Acacesius, with a temple at Megalopolis
• Cranaios, on the mountain Ida in Crete.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.261
• Cyllenian ({{langx|el|Κυλλήνιος}}), because according to some myths he was born at the Mount Cyllene, and nursed by the Oread nymph Cyllene.{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/kappa/2660 |title=Suda, kappa.2660 |access-date=2 November 2020 |archive-date=16 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816215532/https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/kappa/2660 |url-status=live }}{{cite book | title = A Companion to Sophocles | first1 = Kirk | last1 = Ormand | publisher = Wiley Blackwell | isbn = 978-1-119-02553-5 | date = 2012 | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ad0qBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 163]}}
• dromios, god of the race-course in Crete [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*dro%2Fmios dromios]
• Perpheraios, Hyperborean in Thrace.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.81[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*perferai%3Dos Lidell Scott]

{{main|Kriophoros}}

• epimelios, taking care of animals.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.506
• kriophoros.In ancient Greek culture, kriophoros ({{langx|el|κριοφόρος}}) or criophorus, the "ram-bearer,"MA De La Torre, A Hernández, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FPo_nS1Ce1sC&dq=Hermes+Thoth&pg=PA121 The Quest for the Historical Satan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055832/https://books.google.com/books?id=FPo_nS1Ce1sC&dq=Hermes+Thoth&pg=PA121 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Fortress Press, 2011, {{ISBN|0-8006-6324-1}}. is a figure that commemorates the solemn sacrifice of a ram. It becomes an epithet of Hermes.
• ktenites, taking care of horses, lions, dogs, etc.
• molossos, nursing small animals.
• nomios, nursing small animals.

File:Euphronios krater side A MET L.2006.10.jpg and Thanatos (Sleep and Death), while Hermes watches. Side A of the so-called "Euphronios krater", Attic red-figured calyx-krater signed by Euxitheos (potter) and Euphronios (painter), c. 515 BC.]]

The chief office of the god was as messenger.{{cite book |author=W. Blackwood Ltd. (Edinburgh) |title=Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Volume 22; Volume 28 |publisher=Leonard Scott & Co. 1849}} Explicitly, at least in sources of classical writings, of Euripides's Electra and Iphigenia in AulisEuripides, Iphigenia in Aulis [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0108%3Acard%3D1276 1301] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129210645/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0108:card%3D1276 |date=29 November 2021 }}. and in Epictetus's Discourses.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?all_words=Hermes&target=en&documents=&phrase=Hermes&exclude_words=&page=9&any_words= Perseus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123143951/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?all_words=Hermes&target=en&documents=&phrase=Hermes&exclude_words=&page=9&any_words= |date=23 January 2022 }} – Tufts University Hermes (Diactorus, Angelos){{cite book|author1=R Davis-Floyd|author2=P Sven Arvidson|title=Intuition: The Inside Story : Interdisciplinary Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45cpgKImproC&pg=PA96|year=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-91594-6|page=96}} the messenger,{{cite book |title=New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited |edition=New (fifth impression) |year=1972 |orig-year=1968 |page=123 |isbn=0-600-02351-6}} is in fact only seen in this role, for Zeus, from within the pages of the Odyssey. The messenger divine and herald of the Gods, he wears the gifts from his father, the petasos and talaria.

{{blockquote|Oh mighty messenger of the gods of the upper and lower worlds... (Aeschylus).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MoUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA226 |author=Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin |title=Études mithriaques: actes du 2e Congrès International, Téhéran, du 1er au 8 september 1975 |year=1976 |publisher=BRILL, 1978|isbn=90-04-03902-3 }}}}

• aggelos, messenger.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D18%3Acard%3D1 Hymn 18 to Hermes]
• agetor, god of travellers.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.507
• chrysorappis, "with golden wand," an Homeric epithet.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dxruso%2Frrapis Lidell Scott]
• diaktoros, an Homeric epithet. Messenger of the gods and conductor of the shades of the dead.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0073%3Aentry%3Ddia%2Fktoros Lidell Scot]
• hegemonios, protector of the wayfarers.
• eriounios, an Homeric epithet with uncertain meaning. According to Hesychius: oùnei, deṹro, dràme. The Arcadians also oùnon, the Cypriots drómon.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dou%29%2Fnei ounei] This intepretetion relates the epithet to "move quickly".C.M.Bowra, JHS.LIV, 1934, p.68: Nilsson, Vol. I, p.501, A1
• hodios, patron of travelers and wayfarers.
• kerix, messenger.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.509
• oneiropompus, conductor of dreams.
• poimandres, shepherd of men.{{cite book |author=M-L von Franz |author-link=Marie-Louise von Franz |title=Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology: Reflections of the Soul |year=1980 |publisher=Open Court Publishing, 1985 |isbn=0-87548-417-4}}
• pompos, conveyor related to the underworld.Nilsson, Vol. I, p.509
• pompaios, conductor.
• psychopompos, conveyor or conductor of souls,{{cite magazine |magazine=Crisolenguas |first=Jonathan F. |last=Krell |url=http://crisolenguas.uprrp.edu/ArticlesV2N2/Gustave%20Moreau.pdf |title=Mythical patterns in the art of Gustave Moreau: The primacy of Dionysus |volume=2 |number=2 |access-date=29 March 2019 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415165350/http://crisolenguas.uprrp.edu/ArticlesV2N2/Gustave%20Moreau.pdf |url-status=live }} and psychogogue, conductor or leader of souls in (or through) the underworld.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pz2ORay2HWoC&pg=RA2-PA1328 |title=The Chambers Dictionary |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=1998|isbn=978-81-86062-25-8 }}
• sokos eriounios, a Homeric epithet with a much-debated meaning – probably "swift, good-running."Reece, Steve, "Σῶκος Ἐριούνιος Ἑρμῆς (Iliad 20.72): The Modification of a Traditional Formula," Glotta: Zeitschrift für griechische und lateinische Sprache 75 (1999–2000) 259–280, understands Sokos as a metanalysis of a word ending in -s plus Okus "swift," and eriounios as related to Cyprian "good-running." [https://www.academia.edu/30821165] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016120243/https://www.academia.edu/30821165|date=16 October 2021}} But in the Hymn to Hermes Eriounios is etymologized as "very beneficial."Wrongly, according to Reece, Steve, "A Figura Etymologica in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes," Classical Journal 93.1 (1997) 29–39. https://www.academia.edu/30641338/A_Figura_Etymologica_in_the_Homeric_Hymn_to_Hermes {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231033536/https://www.academia.edu/30641338/A_Figura_Etymologica_in_the_Homeric_Hymn_to_Hermes |date=31 December 2019 }}

File:Hermes Logios Altemps 33.jpg

• Agoraeus, of the agora;{{cite book |first=Mabel |last=Lang |author-link=Mabel Lang |title=Graffiti in the Athenian Agora |url=http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/upload/Graffiti%20in%20the%20Athenian%20AgoraLR.pdf|access-date=14 April 2007 |edition=rev. |series=Excavations of the Athenian Agora |year=1988 |publisher=American School of Classical Studies at Athens |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=0-87661-633-3 |page=7| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040609002142/http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/upload/Graffiti%20in%20the%20Athenian%20AgoraLR.pdf |archive-date=9 June 2004 }} belonging to the market (Aristophanes){{cite book |last1=Ehrenberg |first1=Victor |title=The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy |date=1951 |publisher=B. Blackwell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oikOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA147}}
• Empolaios, "engaged in traffic and commerce"

Hermes is sometimes depicted in art works holding a purse.{{cite book |author1=S. Hornblower |author2=A. Spawforth |title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |page=370|publisher=Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-870677-9}}

Source:P Young-Eisendrath, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5dZUM7ogtQYC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA266 The Cambridge Companion to Jung] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429235016/https://books.google.com/books?id=5dZUM7ogtQYC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA266 |date=29 April 2023 }}, Cambridge University Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-521-68500-1}}.

No cult to Hermes Dolios existed in Attica, and so “this form of Hermes seems to have existed in speech only, but he was surely still a real power”I Polinskaya, citing Robert Parker (2003): I Polinskaya, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8FqNAgAAQBAJ&dq=Hermes+dolios&pg=PA103 A Local History of Greek Polytheism: Gods, People and the Land of Aigina, 800–400 BCE (p. 103)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429233509/https://books.google.com/books?id=8FqNAgAAQBAJ&dq=Hermes+dolios&pg=PA103 |date=29 April 2023 }}, BRILL, 2013, {{ISBN|90-04-26208-3}}.[https://archive.org/details/anuniversalhist05histgoog/page/n43 An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time – Volume 5 (p. 34)], 1779.

Hermes Dolio is ambiguous.L Kahn-Lyotard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ANC8Cwuk46sC&dq=Hermes+dolios&pg=PA185 Greek and Egyptian Mythologies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054901/https://books.google.com/books?id=ANC8Cwuk46sC&dq=Hermes%20dolios&pg=PA185 |date=12 April 2023 }} (edited by Y Bonnefoy), University of Chicago Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-226-06454-9}}. According to prominent folklorist Yeleazar Meletinsky, Hermes is a deified tricksterMeletinsky, Introduzione (1993), p. 131. and master of thieves ("a plunderer, a cattle-raider, a night-watching" in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes)N. O. Brown, Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth and deception (Euripides)NW Slater, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WoEPlVY9vYEC&dq=Hermes+Dolios&pg=PA179 Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429233510/https://books.google.com/books?id=WoEPlVY9vYEC&dq=Hermes%20Dolios&pg=PA179 |date=29 April 2023 }}, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8122-3652-1}}. and (possibly evil) tricks and trickeries,Aristophanes{{clarify|date=April 2016}}"[T]he thief praying...": [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZh1OgWCIWgC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA221 W Kingdon Clifford, L Stephen, F Pollock] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055833/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZh1OgWCIWgC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA221 |date=12 April 2023 }}William Stearns Davis – A Victor of Salamis: A Tale of the Days of Xerxes, Leonidas, and Themistocles, Wildside Press LLC, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4344-8334-7}}.A Brown, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JQQOAAAAQAAJ&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA101 A New Companion to Greek Tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430001029/https://books.google.com/books?id=JQQOAAAAQAAJ&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA101 |date=30 April 2023 }}, Taylor & Francis, 1983, {{ISBN|0-389-20396-3}}. crafty (from lit. god of craft),F Santi Russell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xIh_Vsbc4IYC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA183 Information Gathering in Classical Greece] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055835/https://books.google.com/books?id=xIh_Vsbc4IYC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA183 |date=12 April 2023 }}, University of Michigan Press, 1999. the cheat,JJ Ignaz von Döllinger, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2MsZAAAAMAAJ&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA191 The Gentile and the Jew in the courts of the Temple of Christ: an introduction to the history of Christianity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054904/https://books.google.com/books?id=2MsZAAAAMAAJ&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA191 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1862. the god of stealth.EL Wheeler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WsF8FF40qKUC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA32 Stratagem and the Vocabulary of Military Trickery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429235018/https://books.google.com/books?id=WsF8FF40qKUC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA32 |date=29 April 2023 }}, BRILL, 1988, {{ISBN|90-04-08831-8}}. He is also known as the friendliest to man, cunning,R Parker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&dq=Hermes+Dolios&pg=PA126 Polytheism and Society at Athens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430001028/https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&dq=Hermes+Dolios&pg=PA126 |date=30 April 2023 }}, Oxford University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-19-921611-8}}. treacherous,Athenaeus, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WkViAAAAMAAJ&q=Hermes+Dolios The learned banqueters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055832/https://books.google.com/books?id=WkViAAAAMAAJ&q=Hermes+Dolios |date=12 April 2023 }}, Harvard University Press, 2008. and a schemer.I Ember, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QYKfAAAAMAAJ&q=Hermes+Dolios Music in painting: music as symbol in Renaissance and baroque painting] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430001026/https://books.google.com/books?id=QYKfAAAAMAAJ&q=Hermes%20Dolios |date=30 April 2023 }}, Corvina, 1984.

Hermes Dolios was worshipped at PellenePausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+7.27.1 7.27.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616052518/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%207.27.1 |date=16 June 2022 }}Plutarch (trans. William Reginald Halliday), The Greek questions of Plutarch. and invoked through Odysseus.S Montiglio, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AuU7DDnpd4EC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA278 Silence in the Land of Logos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054909/https://books.google.com/books?id=AuU7DDnpd4EC&dq=HermesDolios&pg=PA278 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Princeton University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|0-691-14658-6}}.

{{blockquote|(As the ways of gain are not always the ways of honesty and straightforwardness, Hermes obtains a bad character and an in-moral (amoral [ed.]) cult as Dolios)J Pòrtulas, C Miralles, Archilochus and the Iambic Poetry (page 24){{Verify source|date=August 2024|reason=cite linked to google search results, unclear if anyone read original source}} }}

Hermes is amoral{{cite book|author=John H. Riker|title=Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Psyche|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MzAl_Pn6s_UC&pg=PA187|year=1991|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-1736-3|page=187}} like a baby.{{cite book|author=Andrew Samuels|title=Jung and the Post-Jungians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SI0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA247|year=1986|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|isbn=978-0-7102-0864-4|page=247}} Zeus sent Hermes as a teacher to humanity to teach them knowledge of and value of justice and to improve inter-personal relationships ("bonding between mortals").{{cite book|author=Ben-Ami Scharfstein|title=Amoral Politics: The Persistent Truth of Machiavellism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibkxwtmP7_UC&pg=PA102|year=1995|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-2279-3|page=102}}

Considered to have a mastery of rhetorical persuasion and special pleading, the god typically has nocturnal modus operandi.{{cite book|author=Homerus|title=Three Homeric Hymns: To Apollo, Hermes, and Aphrodite|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UYvVJ3zB7W8C|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45158-1}} Hermes knows the boundaries and crosses the borders of them to confuse their definition.L Hyde, [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781847672254 Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth and Art], Canongate Books, 2008.

File:Hermes Propylaeus Roman copy Alkamens, Glyptothek Munich 159 120280.jpg statue from the entrance of the Athenian Acropolis, original shortly after the 450 BC.]]

• In the Lang translation of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the god after being born is described as a robber, a captain of raiders and a thief of the gates.Andrew Lang, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16338/16338-h/16338-h.htm THE HOMERIC HYMNS A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924201605/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16338/16338-h/16338-h.htm |date=24 September 2015 }}. Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition.
• klepsiphron (κλεψίφρων), with the mind of a thief.

[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?all_words=kleyi/frwn&all_words_expand=yes&la=greek Hymn 4 to Hermes]

• pheletes (φηλητής), thief,[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dfhlhth%2Fs pheletes]Nilsson, Vol. I p.507
• phelos (φήλος), deceitful.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=fh%3Dlos&la=greek&can=fh%3Dlos0&prior=fhlhth/s&d=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058:entry=fhlhth/s&i=1#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=fh=los-contents phelos]

According to the late Jungian psychotherapist López-Pedraza, everything Hermes thieves, he later sacrifices to the gods.

Autolycus received his skills as the greatest of thieves due to sacrificing to Hermes as his patron.[https://books.google.com/books?id=GkZJehm339wC&dq=Hermes+sacrifices+all+he+thieves+to+the+gods&pg=PA77 The Homeric Hymns (pp. 76–77)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054911/https://books.google.com/books?id=GkZJehm339wC&dq=Hermes+sacrifices+all+he+thieves+to+the+gods&pg=PA77 |date=12 April 2023 }}, edited by AN Athanassakis, JHU Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8018-7983-3}}.

Other epithets included:

• agonios, as president of games.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)gw%2Fnios1 agonios]
• akaketos "without guile," "gracious," an Homeric epithet.
• chthonius – at the festival Athenia Chytri sacrifices are made to this visage of the god only.Aristophanes, [https://archive.org/details/frogsaristophan02arisgoog/page/n383 The Frogs of Aristophanes, with Notes and Critical and Explanatory, Adapted to the Use of Schools and Universities, by T. Mitchell], John Murray, 1839.GS Shrimpton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1tRf3DQycDEC&dq=Hermes+Chthonius&pg=PA264 Theopompus The Historian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430003041/https://books.google.com/books?id=1tRf3DQycDEC&dq=Hermes+Chthonius&pg=PA264 |date=30 April 2023 }}, McGill-Queens, 1991.
• dotor Eaon (δώτωρ εάων), giver of good things," an Homeric epithet.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Ddw%2Ftwr dotor eaon]
• eriboas, loud shouting [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De)ribo%2Fas eriboas]
• enagonios, presiding over the games.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De)nagw%2Fnios enagonios]
• eriounis, an Homeric epithet with uncertain meaning. Probably helper or bringer of good luck.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book=20:card=30 Iliad 20.30]
• eriounios, an Homeric epithet with uncertain meaning. According to Hesychius: oùnei, deṹro, dràme. The Arcadians also oùnon, the Cypriots drómon. This intepretetion relates the epithet to "move quickly".C.M.Bowra, JHS.LIV, 1934, p.68: Nilsson, Vol. I, p.501, A2
• koinos, fellowship, communion, partnership RA Bauslaugh, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKiDIz7EWaoC&dq=hermes+Koinos&pg=PA37 The Concept of Neutrality in Classical Greece] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430003039/https://books.google.com/books?id=IKiDIz7EWaoC&dq=hermes+Koinos&pg=PA37 |date=30 April 2023 }}, University of California Press, 1991, {{ISBN|0-520-06687-1}}.
• kynagches, dog throttler
• ploutodotes, giver of wealth (as inventor of fire)Fiske 1865.
• promachos, champion.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D22%3Asection%3D1 Pausanias 9.22.1]
• proopylaios, "before the gate", "guardian of the gate";CO Edwardson (2011), Women and Philanthropy, tricksters and soul: re-storying otherness into crossroads of change, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2010, p. 60. Pylaios, "doorkeeper"The Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies: Ithaca August 2009, Conference Paper, page 12 [https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:gHHkuzal164J:www.thejungiansociety.org/Jung%2520Society/e-journal/Volume-6/Fidyk-2010.pdf+&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi0SCCwioHlGLBZ7mz3yH4BJst86sZ2b3WiJujr6ZMZJz9UvApI84fyJgK5nd9Xvn-Lxm_Tt7Pz3dka1C0vEqER_vSxnps3-V4BZx6qGnruaKNZwpl5m8zs2v45T8eWN3vO3W-j&sig=AHIEtbR4is9-5V1NTob8qGnfkoU71aFlIg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010015232/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:gHHkuzal164J:www.thejungiansociety.org/Jung%2520Society/e-journal/Volume-6/Fidyk-2010.pdf+&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi0SCCwioHlGLBZ7mz3yH4BJst86sZ2b3WiJujr6ZMZJz9UvApI84fyJgK5nd9Xvn-Lxm_Tt7Pz3dka1C0vEqER_vSxnps3-V4BZx6qGnruaKNZwpl5m8zs2v45T8eWN3vO3W-j&sig=AHIEtbR4is9-5V1NTob8qGnfkoU71aFlIg|date=10 October 2013}}.
• sokos (σώκος), the strong one, an Homeric epithet.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dsw%3Dkos sokos]
• stropheus,[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstrofai%3Dos Lidell Scott]"the socket in which the pivot of the door moves" (Kerényi in Edwardson) or "door-hinge". Protector of the door (that is the boundary), to the temple{{cite book|author1=Luke Roman|author2=Monica Roman|title=Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOgWfjNIxoMC&pg=PT232|year=2010|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-2639-5|pages=232ff}}Sourced originally in R Davis-Floyd, P Sven Arvidson (1997).{{cite book|author=Raffaele Pettazzoni|title=The All-knowing God|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA165|year=1956|publisher=Arno Press|isbn=978-0-405-10559-3|page=165}}CS Wright, J Bolton Holloway, RJ Schoeck – Tales within tales: Apuleius through time, AMS Press, 2000, p. 23.

Image:Byzantine - Circular Pyxis - Walters 7164 - View C.jpg

|url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/28991

|title= Circular Pyxis}} The Walters Art Museum.]]

Homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad, he is called "the bringer of good luck", "guide and guardian", and "excellent in all the tricks". He was a divine ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and accompanied them back to Troy.

He also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes helps the protagonist Odysseus by informing him about the fate of his companions, who were turned into animals by the power of Circe. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calypso of Zeus's order to free Odysseus from her island to allow him to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades.Homer. The Odyssey. Plain Label Books, 1990. Trans. Samuel Butler. pp. 40, 81–82, 192–195. In Works and Days, when Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to disgrace humanity by punishing Prometheus's act of giving fire to man, every god gave her a gift, and Hermes's gifts were lies, seductive words, and a dubious character. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.

File:Hermes Maia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304.jpg

The Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes,"The conventional attribution of the Hymns to Homer, in spite of linguistic objections, and of many allusions to things unknown or unfamiliar in the Epics, is merely the result of the tendency to set down "masterless" compositions to a well-known name...": Andrew Lang, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16338/16338-h/16338-h.htm THE HOMERIC HYMNS A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924201605/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16338/16338-h/16338-h.htm |date=24 September 2015 }}. Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition. Project Gutenberg. which tells the story of the god's birth and his subsequent theft of Apollo's sacred cattle, invokes him as the one "of many shifts (polytropos), 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." The word polutropos ("of many shifts, turning many ways, of many devices, ingenious, or much wandering") is also used to describe Odysseus in the first line of the Odyssey. In addition to the chelys lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sport of wrestling, and therefore was a patron of athletes.

Aeschylus wrote in The Eumenides that Hermes helped Orestes kill Clytemnestra under a false identity and other stratagems, and also said that he was the god of searches, and those who seek things lost or stolen.Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 919. Quoted in [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#Travel God of Searchers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628223133/http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#Travel |date=28 June 2011 }}. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. In Philoctetes, Sophocles invokes Hermes when Odysseus needs to convince Philoctetes to join the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and in Euripides's Rhesus Hermes helps Dolon spy on the Greek navy.{{cite book|author=Norman Oliver Brown | title=Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzNfeQSXKfcC|year=1990|publisher=Steiner Books|isbn=978-0-940262-26-3|pages=3–10}}

Aesop featured him in several of his fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, of edible roots, and of hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence.Aesop. Fables 474, 479, 520, 522, 563, 564. Quoted in [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#Sleep God of Dreams of Omen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628223133/http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#Sleep |date=28 June 2011 }}; [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#Contests God of Contests, Athletics, Gymnasiums, The Games] , Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.

File:Cameo Ptolemaic prince Bab111 CdM Paris.jpg cameo of a Ptolemaic prince as Hermes, Cabinet des médailles, Paris]]

One of the Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. Aeschylus had called him by this epithet several times.Orphic Hymn 57 to Chthonian Hermes Aeschylus. Libation Bearers. Cited in Guide of the Dead. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. Another is the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, where his association with the athletic games held is mystic in tone.Orphic Hymn 28 to Hermes. Quoted in God of Contests, Athletics, Gymnasiums, The Games. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology.

Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts,Phlegon of Tralles. Book of Marvels, 2.1. Quoted in [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#GuideDead Guide of the Dead] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628223133/http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesGod.html#GuideDead |date=28 June 2011 }}. The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology. and Apollodorus reports several events involving Hermes. According to Apollodorus, Hermes participated in the Gigantomachy in defense of Olympus;Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.6.2 1.6.2]. was given the task of bringing baby Dionysus to be cared for by Ino and Athamas and later took him to be cared for by the Nysan nymphs, later called the Hyades;Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.4.3 3.4.3]{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. lead Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to Paris to be judged by him in a beauty contest;Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.3.2 E.3.2]{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. favored the young Heracles by giving him a sword when he finished his education;Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.4.12 2.4.12]. and aided Perseus in fetching the head of the Gorgon Medusa.Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:2.4.2 2.4.2].

Anyte of Tegea of the 3rd century BC,{{cite book|last=Yao|first=Steven G.|author-link=Steven G. Yao|title=Translation and the Languages of Modernism: Gender, Politics, Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXtmlxi7nCwC&pg=PA89|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-29519-6|page=89}} in the translation by Richard Aldington, wrote, I Hermes stand here at the crossroads by the wind beaten orchard, near the hoary grey coast; and I keep a resting place for weary men. And the cool stainless spring gushes out.{{cite book|last=Benstock|first=Shari|author-link=Shari Benstock|title=Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nZIQXE7bZfsC&pg=PA323|year=2010|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-78298-3|page=323}}

File:Lekythos Hermes Herse MAN.jpg. Attic red-figure amphora, c. 470 BC.]]

• Peitho, the goddess of seduction and persuasion, was said by Nonnus to be the wife of Hermes.{{Cite book|url=http://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca8.html|title=Dionysiaca|last=Nonnus|pages=8. 220 ff}}
• Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was wooed by Hermes. After she had rejected him, Hermes sought the help of Zeus to seduce her. Zeus, out of pity, sent his eagle to take away Aphrodite's sandal when she was bathing, and gave it to Hermes. When Aphrodite came looking for the sandal, Hermes seduced her. They had a child, Hermaphroditus.Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 16
• Daeira, an Oceanid and an underworld goddess, mated with Hermes and gave birth to a son named Eleusis.Pausanias, Description of Greece [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D38%3Asection%3D7 1.38.7].
• Apemosyne, a princess of Crete, was travelling to Rhodes one day with her brother Althaemenes. Hermes saw her and fell in love with her, but Apemosyne fled from him. Hermes could not catch her because she ran faster than him. The god then devised a plan and laid some freshly skinned hides across her path. Later, on her way back from a spring, Apemosyne slipped on those hides and fell. At that moment, Hermes caught her and raped her. When Apemosyne told her brother what had happened, he became angry, thinking that she was lying about being molested by the god. In his anger, he kicked her to death.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 2
• Chione, a princess of Phokis, attracted the attention of Hermes. He used his wand to put her to sleep and slept with her. To Hermes she bore a son, Autolycus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 301; Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 8. 6
• Herse, an Athenian princess, was loved by Hermes and bore a son named Cephalus to him.
• Iphthime, a princess of Doros, was loved by Hermes. They had three Satyroi – named Pherespondos, Lykos and Pronomos.
• Penelopeia, an Arcadian nymph, was loved by Hermes. It is said that Hermes had sex with her in the form of a goat, which resulted in their son, the god Pan, having goat legs.Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 2 She has been confused or conflated with Penelope, the wife of Odysseus.
• The Oreads, the nymphs of the mountains were said to mate with Hermes in the highlands, breeding more of their kind.Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 256
• Tanagra was a nymph for whom the gods Ares and Hermes competed in a boxing match. Hermes won and carried her off to Tanagra in Boeotia.

According to Hyginus's Fabula, Pan, the Greek god of nature, shepherds and flocks, is the son of Hermes through the nymph Dryope.Hyginus, Fabula 160, makes Hermes the father of Pan. It is likely that the worship of Hermes himself actually originated as an aspect of Pan as the god of boundaries, which could explain their association as parent and child in Hyginus. In other sources, the god Priapus is understood as a son of Hermes.Karl Kerényi, Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p. 175, citing G. Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca ex lapidibus collecta, 817, where the other god's name, both father and son of Hermes, is obscured; according to other sources, Priapus was a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite.

According to the mythographer Apollodorus, Autolycus, the Prince of Thieves, was a son of Hermes and Chione, making Hermes a great-grandfather of Odysseus.Apollodorus [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.9.16 1.9.16].

File:Hermes warrior Louvre G515.jpg

Once, Hermes chased either Persephone or Hecate with the aim to rape her; but the goddess snored or roared in anger, frightening him off so that he desisted, hence her earning the name "Brimo" ("angry").Tzetzes ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#1176 1176] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226075020/https://topostext.org/work/860#1176 |date=26 February 2024 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=DDxEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA29 (Gk text)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210100802/https://books.google.com/books?id=DDxEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA29 |date=10 February 2023 }}; Heslin, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WhJbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 39] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210100802/https://books.google.com/books?id=WhJbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 |date=10 February 2023 }}{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}}

Hermes also loved young men in pederastic relationships where he bestowed or taught something related to combat, athletics, herding, poetry and music. Photius wrote that Polydeuces (Pollux), one of the Dioscuri, was a lover of Hermes, to whom he gifted the Thessalian horse Dotor.{{Cite web |url=https://topostext.org/work/237#190.50 |title=Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts, 190.50 |access-date=11 April 2020 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121002207/https://topostext.org/work/237#190.50 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/photius/ptolemee.htm |title=Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts - GR |access-date=11 April 2020 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204223756/http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/photius/ptolemee.htm |url-status=live }} Amphion became a great singer and musician after his lover Hermes taught him to play and gave him a golden lyre.Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 10 Crocus was said to be a beloved of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus when he unexpectedly stood up; as the unfortunate youth's blood dripped on the soil, the saffron flower came to be.{{sfn|Miller|Strauss Clay|2019|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UviFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 133]}} Perseus received the divine items (talaria, petasos, and the helm of darkness) from Hermes because he loved him.Pseudo-Hyginus, De astronomia [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.12.1 2.12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815135348/https://topostext.org/work/207#2.12.1 |date=15 August 2021 }}. And Daphnis, a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry, is said to be a son or sometimes eromenos of Hermes.Aelian, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0591%3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D18 Varia Historia 10.18] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920163414/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0591:book%3D10:chapter%3D18 |date=20 September 2022 }}

The following is a list of Hermes's offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source (in some cases approximately) dates.

{{chart top|Hermes's family tree|collapsed=yes}}

{{chart/start}}

{{chart|}}

{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |URA |y|GAI |URA=Uranus|GAI=Gaia}}

{{chart| | | | | |,|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|^|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|.}}

{{chart|URA|F|IAP | |OCE |y|TET | | | | | | | |CRO |y|RHE |IAP=Iapetus|OCE=Oceanus|TET=Tethys|URA=Uranus' genitals|CRO=Cronus|RHE=Rhea}}

{{chart| |!| |:| | | |,|-|-|-|(| | | |,|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|.}}

{{chart| |!| |L|~|y|CLY |F|PLE |F|ZEU |y|HER | |POS | |HAD | |DEM | |HES |CLY=ClymeneAccording to Hesiod's Theogony [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:507-544 507–509] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106101941/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:507-544 |date=6 January 2021 }}, Atlas's mother was the Oceanid Clymene, later accounts have the Oceanid Asia as his mother, see Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.2.3 1.2.3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914144847/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+351 |date=14 September 2020 }}.|PLE=Pleione|HES=Hestia|DEM=Demeter|ZEU=Zeus|HER=Hera|HAD=Hades|POS=Poseidon}}

{{chart| |!| | | |!| | | |:| | | |:| |,|-|^|.| |!}}

{{chart| |!| | |ATL |y|~|J| | | |:| |!| |AAA |!|ATL=Atlas|AAA=     aAccording to Homer, Iliad [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.570 1.570–579] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502110214/http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.570 |date=2 May 2021 }}, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.338 14.338], Odyssey [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.312 8.312], Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.|border_AAA=0}}

{{chart|border=0| |!| | | | | |!| | | | | |:| |!| | |!|BBB |BBB=     bAccording to Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+927 927–929] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227125027/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+927 |date=27 February 2021 }}, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.}}

{{chart| |!| | | | |MAI |~|y|~|~|C| |!| | |!| |!|MAI=Maia}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | |!| | |:|ARE | |HEP |ARE=Ares|HEP=Hephaestus}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | |HER | |D|~|~|~|y|~|~|~|~|MET |HER=Hermes|MET=Metis}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |:| | |ATH |ATH=AthenaAccording to Hesiod's Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+886 886–890] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505141442/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+886 |date=5 May 2016 }}, of Zeus's children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |D|~|~|~|y|~|~|~|~|LET |LET=Leto}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |:| |,|-|^|-|.}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |:|APO | |ART |APO=Apollo|ART=Artemis}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |D|~|~|~|y|~|~|~|~|SEM |SEM=Semele}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |:| | |DIO |DIO=Dionysus}}

{{chart| |!| | | | | | | | | | | |L|~|~|~|~|y|~|~|~|DIO |DIO=Dione}}

{{chart|border=0|AAA | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |BBB|AAA=    aAccording to Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+183 183–200] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227064102/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+183 |date=27 February 2021 }}, Aphrodite was born from Uranus's severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.|BBB=     bAccording to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.374 3.374], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:20.105 20.105] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102225842/http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:20.105 |date=2 November 2018 }}; Odyssey [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.308 8.308] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102224038/http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.308 |date=2 November 2018 }}, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.320 320]) and Dione (Iliad [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:5.370 5.370–71] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022122342/http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.374 |date=22 October 2022 }}), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.}}

{{chart| |`|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.| |!}}

{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |APH |APH=Aphrodite}}

{{chart/end}}

{{chart bottom}}

File:Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl - Die Seelen am Acheron - 942 - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg, 1898.]]

For Carl Jung, Hermes's role as messenger between realms and as guide to the underworldA Stevens, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ML8OAAAAQAAJ&dq=Hermes+psychiatry+psychology+of&pg=PA115 On Jung] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054918/https://books.google.com/books?id=ML8OAAAAQAAJ&dq=Hermes+psychiatry+psychology+of&pg=PA115 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Taylor & Francis, 1990. made him the god of the unconscious,{{cite journal |last1= Merritt|first1= Dennis L.|year= 1996–1997|title= Jung and the Greening of Psychology and Education|journal= Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung Newsletter|volume= 6|issue= 1|pages= 9, 12, 13}} ([http://www.dennismerrittjungiananalyst.com/Jung_and_Greening.htm Online.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226151026/http://www.dennismerrittjungiananalyst.com/Jung_and_Greening.htm |date=26 February 2012 }}) the mediator between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, and the guide for inner journeys.JC Miller, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F29B3MFVKW4C&dq=Hermes+and+the+unconscious&pg=PA108 The Transcendent Function: Jung's Model of Psychological Growth Through Dialogue With the Unconscious] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054914/https://books.google.com/books?id=F29B3MFVKW4C&dq=Hermes+and+the+unconscious&pg=PA108 |date=12 April 2023 }}, SUNY Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7914-5977-2}}.

Jung considered the gods Thoth and Hermes to be counterparts.H Yoshida, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EnJrPIgnBU8C&dq=Jung+and+Hermes&pg=PA153 Joyce and Jung: The "Four Stages of Eroticism" In a Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430003045/https://books.google.com/books?id=EnJrPIgnBU8C&dq=Jung+and+Hermes&pg=PA153 |date=30 April 2023 }}, Peter Lang, 2006, {{ISBN|0-8204-6913-0}}.

He emphasized Hermes's central role in the practice of medieval alchemy,Carl Gustav Jung and R.F.C. Hull, Alchemical Studies, Routledge & Kegan Paul. (1967), §157. which Jung believed to be symbolic of the psychological process he called individuation.{{Cite thesis |last=Wagner |first=Christopher Franklin |date=2019-05-15 |title=Of Books and Fire: Approaching the Alchemy of Carl Gustav Jung |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/290574 |language=en |doi=10.17863/CAM.37801}} In Jungian psychology especially,CG Jung, R Main, [https://books.google.com/books?id=usrGSaO7QosC&q=Hermes&pg=PR7 Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054917/https://books.google.com/books?id=usrGSaO7QosC&q=Hermes&pg=PR7 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Routledge, 1997. {{ISBN|0-415-15509-6}}. Hermes is seen as relevant to study of the phenomenon of synchronicityHJ Hannan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IS4zLWzIQPsC&dq=Hermes+god+of+synchronicity&pg=PA141 Initiation Through Trauma: A Comparative Study of the Descents of Inanna and Persephone: Dreaming Persephone Forward]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ProQuest, 2005, {{ISBN|0-549-47480-3}}. (together with Pan and Dionysus):R Main, [https://books.google.com/books?id=v_1qS9rnLxAC&dq=Hermes+god+of+synchronicity&pg=PA3 Revelations of Chance: Synhronicity as Spiritual Experience] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055839/https://books.google.com/books?id=v_1qS9rnLxAC&dq=Hermes+god+of+synchronicity&pg=PA3 |date=12 April 2023 }}, SUNY Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-7914-7023-7}}.Gisela Labouvie-Viefn, [https://archive.org/details/psycheerosmindge0000labo/page/257 Psyche and Eros: Mind and Gender in the Life Course] Psyche and Eros: Mind and Gender in the Life Course, Cambridge University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-521-46824-8}}.

{{blockquote|"Hermes is an archetypal figure, a potential in every human psyche..." |DL Merritt}}

He is identified by some with the archetype of healer,R López-Pedraza, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jbgS7lKycncC&dq=Hermes+psychiatry&pg=PA25 Hermes and His Children] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412054906/https://books.google.com/books?id=jbgS7lKycncC&dq=Hermes+psychiatry&pg=PA25 |date=12 April 2023 }}, Daimon, 2003, p. 25, {{ISBN|3-85630-630-7}}. as the ancient Greeks ascribed healing magic to him.DA McNeely, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YemNP0rXIfkC&dq=Hermes+is+the+healer&pg=PA86 Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430003047/https://books.google.com/books?id=YemNP0rXIfkC&dq=Hermes%20is%20the%20healer&pg=PA86 |date=30 April 2023 }}, Fisher King Press, 2011, p. 86, {{ISBN|1-926715-54-3}}.

In the context of abnormal psychology Samuels (1986) states that Jung considers Hermes the archetype for narcissistic disorder; however, he lends the disorder a "positive" (beneficious) aspect, and represents both the good and bad of narcissism.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SI0OAAAAQAAJ&q=Hermes|author= A Samuels |title=Jung and the Post-Jungians|publisher=Taylor & Francis, 1986|isbn=0-7102-0864-2|date= 1986}}

For López-Pedraza, Hermes is the protector of psychotherapy.López-Pedraza 2003, p. 19. For McNeely, Hermes is a god of the healing arts.Allan Beveridge, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JKlnhKRlrqUC&dq=John+Rosen+psychotherapy&pg=PA97 Portrait of the Psychiatrist as a Young Man: The Early Writing and Work of R.D. Laing, 1927–1960 (p. 88)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430003049/https://books.google.com/books?id=JKlnhKRlrqUC&dq=John+Rosen+psychotherapy&pg=PA97 |date=30 April 2023 }}, International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, OUP, {{ISBN|0-19-958357-9}}.

According to Christopher Booker, all the roles Hermes held in ancient Greek thought all considered reveals Hermes to be a guide or observer of transition.Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8264-5209-4}}.

For Jung, Hermes's role as trickster made him a guide through the psychotherapeutic process.

:See Greek mythology in popular culture

• Hermes Trismegistus
• Family tree of the Greek gods

{{Reflist|25em}}

{{refbegin}}

• Allen, Arlene, Hermes, Routledge, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-367-49660-9}}.
• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• {{cite book |last1=Burkert |first1=Walter |title=Greek religion |date=1985 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass |isbn=0-674-36281-0|oclc=11517555}}
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume I: Books 1-2.34, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library No. 279, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1933. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99307-5}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL279/1933/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press]. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version by Bill Thayer].
• {{cite book |title=The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy |first=James |last=Evans |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS51_7qbEWsC |access-date=4 February 2008 |isbn=978-0-19-509539-5}}
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-415-18636-0}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&printsec=frontcover Google Books].
• Herodotus, Histories, translated by A. D. Godley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1920. {{ISBN|0674991338}}. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+1.1.0 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Hesiod, Catalogue of Women, in Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99721-9}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL503/2018/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Hesiod, The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments. Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Loeb Classical Library 503. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0674996236}}.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Homeric Hymn 19 to Pan, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg019.perseus-eng1:1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Hyginus, De astronomia, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/207 Online version at ToposText].
• Hyginus, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at ToposText].
• Lay, M. G., James E. Vance Jr.; Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them, Rutgers University Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-8135-2691-4}}.
• Merkelbach, R., and M. L. West, Fragmenta Hesiodea, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1967. {{ISBN|978-0-198-14171-6}}.
• {{cite book | title = Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury | first1 = John F. | last1 = Miller | first2 = Jenny | last2 = Strauss Clay | date = 2019 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-877734-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UviFDwAAQBAJ | access-date = 16 September 2022 | archive-date = 19 January 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119180712/https://books.google.com/books?id=UviFDwAAQBAJ | url-status = live }}
• Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993. {{ISBN|978-91-7081-062-6}}.
• Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• {{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Barry B. |title=Classical myth |date=2015 |publisher=Pearson |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-321-96704-6 |edition=Eighth|oclc=858159301}}
• Philostratus the Elder, Imagines, in Philostratus the Elder, Imagines. Philostratus the Younger, Imagines. Callistratus, Descriptions, translated by Arthur Fairbanks, Loeb Classical Library No. 256, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1931. {{ISBN|978-06-749-9282-5}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL256/1931/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press]. [https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/n9/mode/2up Internet Archive (1926 edition)].
• Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis, in Plutarch's morals, Volume V, edited and translated by William Watson Goodwin, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1874. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0094.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
• Vian, Francis, Les Argonautiques orphiques, Collection Budé, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2003. {{ISBN|978-2-251-00389-4}}.

{{refend}}

• Baudy, Gerhard, and Anne Ley. 2006. "Hermes." In Der Neue Pauly. Vol 5. Edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Stuttgart, and Weimar, Germany: Verlag J. B. Metzler.
• Bungard, Christopher. 2011. "Lies, Lyres, and Laughter: Surplus Potential in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes." Arethusa 44.2: 143–165.
• Bungard, Christopher. 2012. "Reconsidering Zeus' Order: The Reconciliation of Apollo and Hermes." The Classical World 105.4: 433–469.
• Fowden, Garth. 1993. The Egyptian Hermes. A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles. 2002. "Myth, Festival, and Poet: The Homeric Hymn to Hermes and its Performative Context." Classical Philology 97:109–132.
• Kessler-Dimini, Elizabeth. 2008. "Tradition and Transmission: Hermes Kourotrophos in Nea Paphos, Cyprus." In Antiquity in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World. Edited by Gregg Gardner and K. L. Osterloh, 255–285. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck.
• {{cite book |last=Kuhle |first=Antje | title = Hermes und die Bürger. Der Hermeskult in den griechischen Poleis| date = 2020| publisher = Franz Steiner|location=Stuttgart | isbn = 978-3-515-12809-4}}
• Russo, Joseph. 2000. "Athena and Hermes in Early Greek Poetry: Doubling and Complementarity." In Poesia e religione in Grecia. Studi in onore di G. Aurelio Privitera. Vol. 2. Edited by Maria Cannatà Ferra and S. Grandolini, 595–603. Perugia, Italy: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.
• Schachter, Albert. 1986. Cults of Boiotia. Vol. 2, Heracles to Poseidon. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
• Thomas, Oliver. 2010. "Ancient Greek Awareness of Child Language Acquisition". Glotta 86: 185–223.
• van Bladel, Kevin. 2009. The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science. Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

{{Wiktionary|Hermes}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Hermes

|viaf= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}

• {{Commons category-inline|Hermes}}
• [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hermes.html Theoi Project, Hermes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405173728/https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hermes.html |date=5 April 2019 }} stories from original sources & images from classical art
• [http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HermesCult.html Cult of Hermes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903215926/https://www.theoi.com/Cult/HermesCult.html |date=3 September 2023 }}
• [http://www.men-myths-minds.com/Hermes-greek-god.html The Myths of Hermes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219163120/http://www.men-myths-minds.com/Hermes-greek-god.html |date=19 December 2009 }}
• [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html Ventris and Chadwick: Gods found in Mycenaean Greece] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001091024/http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html |date=1 October 2018 }}: a table drawn up from Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek second edition (Cambridge 1973)
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000096 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Hermes)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709172446/https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000096 |date=9 July 2023 }}

{{Twelve Olympians}}

{{Greek religion}}

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

{{Portal bar|Ancient Greece|Myths|Religion}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Children of Zeus

Category:Chthonic beings

Category:Commerce gods

Category:Consorts of Aphrodite

Category:Deeds of Apollo

Category:Deities in the Iliad

Category:Greek death gods

Category:Greek sleep deities

Category:Greek trickster deities

Category:Greek underworld

Category:Kourotrophoi

Category:LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology

Category:Liminal gods

Category:Mercurian deities

Category:Messenger gods

Category:Metamorphoses characters

Category:Mythological rapists

Category:Odyssean gods

Category:Pastoral gods

Category:Planetary gods

Category:Psychopomps

Category:Sleep gods

Category:Sports gods

Category:Trickster gods

Category:Twelve Olympians

Category:Underworld gods