Hermeias, Hermes, Mercurius, Mercury
"Hermes was born of the mountain-nymph Maia, in a cavern of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. He had scarcely been laid in his cradle, when he got up and set off…
From: 1838 C.E. To: 1838 C.E.
Location: Greece
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“Hermes,” from The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy by Thomas Keightley, 1838.
Chapter X
Hermeias, Hermes, Mercurius, Mercury
Hermeias (as Homer and Hesiod always name this god,) is in one place of the Ilias called the son of Zeus, but his mother is unnoticed. When, in the same poem, Dione is consoling her wounded daughter, she reminds her how others of the Celestials had suffered similar calamities inflicted by mortals. Thus Ares, she says, was once shut up in a brazen prison by Otos and Ephialtes, where he languished till Hermeias, being informed of his state, contrived to steal him out of his dungeon.
Elsewhere the poet tells us that of all the Trojans Hermeias most loved Phorbas (Feeder), rich in sheep, and bestowed on him wealth; and that Eudoros (Wealthy or Munificent) was the son of Hermeias by Polymela (Sheep-full), the daughter of Phylas (Keeper).
Hermeias is opposed in the battle of the gods to Leto, but declines the combat on the plea of the impolicy of making an enemy of one of the consorts of Zeus; at the same time courtier-like telling her that, if she pleases, she may boast of having vanquished him by main strength.
When the corpse of Hector was exposed by Achilleus, the gods, pitying the fate of the hero, urged Hermeias to steal it away. On king Priamos' setting forth to ransom the body of his son, Zeus desires Hermeias to accompany him, reminding him of his fondness for associating with mankind. The god obeys his sire, puts on his ‘immortal golden sandals, which bear him over the water and the extensive earth like the blasts of the wind,’ and takes ‘his rod, with which he lays asleep the eyes of what men he will, and wakes again the sleepers.' He accompanies the aged monarch in the form of a Grecian youth, telling him that he is the son of a wealthy man named Polyctor (Much-possessing),
In the Odyssey Hermeias takes the place of Iris, who does not appear at all in this poem, and becomes the messenger of Zeus. He still retains his character of a friend to man, and comes unsent to point out to Odysseus the herb Moly, which will enable him to escape the enchantments of Circe. Eumaeos the swine-herd makes an offering to Hermes and the nymphs. At the commencement of the spurious twenty-fourth book, Hermeias appears in his character of conveyer of souls to the realms of Hades.
Hesiod says that the Atlantis Maia bore to Zeus the ‘illustrious Hermes, the herald of the Immortals.' In another place he speaks of him very explicitly as the deity presiding over flocks and herds, saying that the herdsmen prayed to him and Hecate. This poet also ascribes to him the only act injurious to man with which he is charged, namely, a share in the formation of the fatal Pandora, to whom he gave her 'currish mind and artful disposition.’
One of the last of the Homerids thus sang the story of the birth and first exploits of this sly deity.
Hermes was born of the mountain-nymph Maia, in a cavern of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. He had scarcely been laid in his cradle, when he got up and set off for Pieria to steal cows from Apollo. As he was going out he met a tortoise, which he caught up and carried back into the cave; where quick as thought he killed the animal, took out the flesh, adapted reeds and strings to the shell, and formed from it the phorminx or lyre, on which he immediately played with perfect skill. He then laid it up in his cradle, and resumed his journey.
He arrived by sunset in Pieria, where the oxen of the gods fed under the care of Apollo. He forthwith separated fifty cows from the herd and drove them away, contriving to make them go backwards; and throwing away his sandals, bound branches of myrtle and tamarisk under his feet, that the herdsman-god might have no clue by which to trace his cattle. As he passed by Onchestos in Boeotia, he saw an old man engaged in planting his vineyard, whom he straitly charged not to tell what he had seen. He then pursued his way by 'shady hills, resounding vales, and flowery plains,’ and as the moon was rising arrived with his booty on the banks of the Alpheios in the Peloponnese.
He there fed and stalled the kine, made a fire, killed, cut up, and dressed two of them, and even made black-puddings of their blood, and then thriftily spread their skins to dry on a rock. He burned the heads and feet, and put out the fire, effacing all signs of it, and flung his twig-sandals into the river. With day-break he slunk home and stole into his cradle, not unobserved by his mother, who reproached him with his deeds; but he replied, that he was resolved by his actions to procure admission for her and himself to the assembly of the gods.
In the morning Apollo missed his kine: he set out in search of them, met the old man, who informed him of his having seen a child driving cows along. He comes to Pylos, where he sees the traces of his cattle, but is amazed at the strange footprints of their driver. He proceeds to the fragrant cave of the nymph, and Hermes on seeing him gathers himself up under the clothes, afraid of the god. Apollo takes the key, opens and searches the three closets where the nymph kept her clothes, ornaments, and food, but to no purpose. He then threatens the child that he will fling him into Tartaros unless he tells him where the cows are: but Hermes stoutly denies all knowledge of them, and even very innocently asks what cows are.
Apollo pulls him out of his cradle, and they agree to go and argue the matter before Zeus. Arrived in Olympos, Apollo relates the theft, and tells what reasons he had for suspecting the baby of being the thief. All this is, to the great amusement of the Celestials, manfully denied and its absurdity shown by the little fellow, who still has his cradle-clothes about him. Zeus however gives it against him, and the two brothers are sent in quest of the missing kine. They come to Pylos, and Hermes drives the cattle out of the cave: Apollo misses two of them; to his amazement he sees their skins upon the rock, and is still more surprised, when, on going to drive the others on, he finds that the art of Hermes had rooted their feet to the ground. Hermes then begins to play on his lyre, the tones of which so ravish Apollo that he offers him the cows for it. The young god gives him the lyre, and receives the cattle. The divine herdsman also bestows on him his whip, and instructs him in the management of the herds.
They now proceed together to Olympos, where Apollo still suspicious exacts an oath from Hermes that he will never steal his lyre or bow; and this being complied with, he presents him with a golden, three-leafed, innocuous rod, the giver of wealth and riches.
The stealing of the cattle of Apollo is somewhat differently related by other writers. According to them, Apollo, delighted with the society of Hymenaeos son of Magnes, a Thessalian youth, neglected the care of his oxen, which pastured along with those of Admetos. Hermes, who in this version of the legend is not a babe, thought the opportunity favourable for stealing a few of the heedless herdsman's cattle. He first cast the dogs into a deep slumber, and then drove off twelve heifers, a hundred unyoked cows, and a bull. He took the precaution of tying a bundle of twigs to the tail of each to efface their footprints, and brought his prize safely on to the place called the Look-out of Battos, in the Peloponnese. Hearing the lowing of the kine, Battos ran out to look, and immediately knew them to be stolen, but agreed for a certain reward not to give information to anyone respecting them.
Hermes having arranged this matter drove on, and concealed his stolen kine in a cavern. He then resolved to make trial of the fidelity of Battos, and, changing his form, came and inquired if he had seen anyone driving stolen cattle by, offering a cloak as a reward for intelligence. The covetous Battos took the cloak, and turned informer: the god, incensed at his duplicity, struck him with his rod and changed him into a rock, which the cold or the heat never leaves.
The following prank is also laid to the charge of this sly deity. Watching one day his mother and her sisters when they went to bathe, he stole their clothes, and did not return them till he had amused himself well with laughing at their perplexity.
A god with so many agreeable qualities as Hermes was not very likely to fail of success with the fair sex, both among gods and mankind. Homer, as we have observed above, says that Eudoros, one of Achilleus’ captains, was the son of Hermes by Polymela the daughter of Phylas. The god having seen her singing in the choir of Artemis, had fallen in love with her. She bore him privately a son, who was reared by her father, herself having married Echecles. By Chione the daughter of Daedalion, or as others said by Stilbe or Telauge the daughter of Eosphoros, Hermes was the father of Autolycos the noted cattle-stealer. The Thessalian maiden Antianeira bore him two sons, ‘rich in corn-fields,’ Echion and Eurytos. Myrtilos, the charioteer of OEnomaos, was the son of Hermes by one of the daughters of Danaos. The celebrated Sicilian shepherd Daphnis was the offspring of this god and one of the nymphs.
One day Hermes beheld Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, among the maidens who were carrying the sacred baskets to the temple of Pallas-Athene. Smitten with her charms, he entered the royal abode, where the three sisters, Aglauros, Pandrosos and Herse, occupied three separate chambers. That of Herse was in the middle, that of Aglauros on the left. The latter first saw the god, and inquired of him who he was and why he came. Hermes immediately informed her of his rank, and his love for her sister, entreating her good offices in his suit. These she promised on the condition of receiving a large quantity of gold, and drove him out of the house till he should have given it.
Pallas-Athene, incensed at her unhallowed cupidity, and provoked with her also for other causes, sent Envy to fill her bosom with that baleful passion. Unable then to endure the idea of the felicity of her sister, she sat down at the door, determined not to permit the god to enter. Hermes exerted his eloquence and his blandishments on her in vain; at length, provoked by her obstinacy, he turned her into a black stone. Herse became the mother of Cephalos.
The only amour of Hermes with any of the dwellers of Olympos was that with Aphrodite, of which the offspring was a son named Hermaphroditos, from the names of his parents, and whose adventure with the Nais Salmacis is narrated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Hermes is in some legends said to be the father of the Arcadian god Pan, and he is even charged with being the sire of the unseemly god of Lampsacus. Both were rural deities.
At Tanagra in Boeotia Hermes was worshiped under the names of Ram-bearer and Defender: the former was given him for having delivered the citizens from a pestilence, by carrying a ram round the walls; and on the festival of Hermes, the most beautiful of the Tanagrian youths bore a lamb on his shoulders round the walls in honour of the god. The latter title was conferred on him because, when the Eretrians attacked the Tanagrians, Hermes as a young man, and armed with a currycomb, led the latter to victory.
Hermes was regarded as the god of commerce, of wrestling and all the exercises of the palaestra, of eloquence, even of thieving; in short, of everything relating to gain or requiring art and ingenuity. A certain good-humoured roguery was at all times a trait in his character. In the pleasing tale of Ares and Aphrodite already noticed, the gallant reply of Hermes to the question of Phoebos-Apollo called forth the laughter of the Olympians.
This god is usually represented with a chlamys or cloak neatly arranged on his person, with his petasus or winged hat, and the talaria or wings at his heels. In his hand he bears his caduceus or staff, with two serpents twined about it, and which sometimes has wings at its extremity. The ancient statues of Hermes were nothing more than wooden posts with a rude head and a pointed beard carved on them. They were what is termed ithyphallic, and were set up on the roads and footpaths, and in the fields and gardens. The Hermae were also pillars of stone, and the head of some other deity at times took the place of that of Hermes; such were the Hermeracles, Hermathenae and others. One of these compounds may have given origin to the tale of Hermaphroditos.
By Homer and Hesiod Hermes is called 1. Argos-slayer; 2. Beneficent; 3. Kind; 4. Strong or Powerful; 5. Performer or Messenger; 6. Well-spying; 7. Gold-rodded; 8. Glorious.
Mythologists are pretty generally agreed in recognizing in the Hermes of the original Pelasgian system a telluric power. The simplest derivation of his name is from the earth; and he is, we may observe, the son of Zeus and Maia, probably Mother Earth. He seems to have been the deity of productiveness in general, but he came gradually to be regarded as presiding more particularly over flocks and herds.
From this last view some of his Hellenic attributes may be simply deduced. Thus the god of shepherds was naturally regarded as the inventor of music; the lyre is ascribed to Hermes as the pipes are to his son Pan, music having been always a recreation of the shepherds in the warm regions of the south. In like manner as the shepherd-lads amuse themselves with wrestling and other feats of strength and activity, their tutelar god easily became the president of the palaestra.
So also, trade having of old consisted chiefly in the exchange of cattle, Hermes, the herdsman's god, was held to be the god of commerce; and the skill and eloquence employed in commercial dealings made him to be the god of eloquence, artifice, and ingenuity, and even of cheating. As herdsmen are the best guides in the country, it may be thence that Hermes was thought to protect wayfarers, and thence to be a protector in general. For this cause, among others, it may have been that godsends or treasure-trove were ascribed to him.
The rural deity, when thus become active, sly, and eloquent, was well adapted for the office which was assigned him of agent and messenger of the king of the gods, to whom we also find him officiating as cup-bearer. As a being whose operations extended into the interior of the earth, Hermes would seem to have been in some points of view identified with Hades. In Pindar, this latter deity himself performs the office generally assigned to Hermes, that of conducting the departed to Erebos. Possibly it may have been on this account that Solon directed the Athenians to swear by Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes.
On looking over the adventures of Hermes above related, it will appear that most of them refer to his character as a rural deity. Such are his patronage of Phorbas, and his being the sire of Eudoros in Homer; the hymn in his honour, which plainly represents him as a rural deity; his being the sire of the cattle-stealer Autolycos (Very-wolf) by Chione (Snow); of the two heroes 'rich in corn-fields’; and of the shepherd Daphnis, and the gods Pan and Priapos. The rural character of Herse and Aglauros will be shown in the sequel.
We shall also find that it was Hermes who gave to Nephele the gold-fleeced ram to save her children from their malignant stepmother. In the poems of the Greek Anthology Hermes is usually represented as a rural deity. In one place the offering to him is milk and honey; in other parts of it fishermen when grown old dedicate their implements to Hermes, either as the god of arts and trade, or as the deity presiding over increase in general.
We will now consider the well-known epithet Argeiphontes, or Argos-slayer, given to this god. The general opinion derives it from the legend of Io, but it has been doubted if that adventure was known to Homer, who calls the deity by this name in passages the genuineness of which cannot well be disputed. The sense of that legend shall be discussed in its proper place; here we will only observe, that if it should appear to be as old as the age of Homer, there can be no further dispute about the origin of the epithet, though its meaning will still remain a subject of inquiry.
Supposing however such not to be the case, it may be asked how the rural deity, the field-god, came by the appellation Argeiphontes? The word Argos bears in Greek the following senses: 1. White or Shining; 2. Swift (in speaking of dogs, and thence the name of a dog); 3. Idle; to which we may venture to add, 4. Land. The latter half of the compound was generally derived from ‘to kill or destroy’; by some however from ‘to show or shine.’ Hence some interpreted Argeiphontes Free-from-bloodshed, others white- or clear-showing; and a modern mythologist renders it White-shining, equivalent to White, a name by which Hermes was worshiped in Boeotia.
We must confess that we are not satisfied with any of these explanations; and should the derivation from the story of Io not be approved of, none appears more probable than the one we ourselves formerly suggested, that the term may signify Field-slayer, and be applied to Hermes as the god of husbandry, under whose auspices the land was ploughed up, and the grass or corn cut down. The eyes of Argos might then have originally signified the flowers with which the meads are bespread. It is to be observed that, in the version of the story of Io followed by Ovid, Hermes appears as a goatherd, and kills Argos with the harpe, a rural implement.
We offer this hypothesis, however, only as a conjecture, perhaps we should say as a mere sport of imagination; for we are inclined to regard the mythe of Io as one of the most remote antiquity.
Keightley, Thomas. The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy. Whittaker, 1838.
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