Hermes

Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia, son of Zeus and Maia, the eldest of the Pleiades. According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, on the very day of his birth he left the cradle at nightfall: he stole Apollo's herd of cattle and erased the trail by making the animals walk backwards, returning to his cave before dawn. That same day he found a tortoise on the threshold, hollowed out its shell and stretched strings over it, thus inventing the lyre. When Apollo discovered the theft and brought him before Zeus, the newborn denied the robbery with such wit that he drew laughter from his father. These episodes reveal him from his first day as the god of cunning, invention and passage between boundaries.

Hermes is the herald and messenger of the Olympian gods, as well as patron of merchants, shepherds, travelers, orators and thieves. As psychopomp (guide of souls), he leads the dead to the shore of the underworld, an office that makes him the intermediary between the world of the living and that of the dead. Tradition credits him with the invention of the syrinx (shepherd's pipe), of the alphabet and of weights and measures, as well as the patronage of the wrestling school and of boxing. His iconography is unmistakable: the winged sandals (talaria) that grant him speed, the winged petasos (traveler's hat) and the caduceus, the staff with two intertwined serpents. These attributes define him as the god of movement, commerce and communication, able to cross any threshold between worlds.

In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the god settles his dispute with Apollo by giving him the lyre; in return he receives from him the golden caduceus and the charge of the herds. On Zeus's orders he slays Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed giant whom Hera had set to watch over the nymph Io, a feat that earns him the epithet Argeiphontes (slayer of Argus). He aids heroes: he gives Perseus the winged sandals and the sickle to behead Medusa, and in the Iliad he escorts King Priam by night through the Achaean camp to ransom the body of Hector. In the Odyssey he gives Odysseus the moly herb against Circe and guides the souls of the suitors. Identified with the Roman Mercury, his caduceus endures as an emblem of commerce and communication in the modern world.