Messenger god, patron of travelers, merchants, and thieves, and guide of souls.
Overview
Hermes is a major pan-Hellenic Olympian god in Greek myth. He is best known as the messenger of the Olympians and is active during the age of the Olympian gods. Also called Hermes Psychopompos, he is the patron of travelers, merchants, heralds, and thieves, and he guides souls to the Underworld.
As an Olympian, Hermes holds an important place among the gods. He moves between the divine and mortal worlds and between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead.
Epithets and Titles
Hermes has many epithets that show his different roles. Important ones include Psychopompos (guide of souls), Argeiphontes (slayer of Argus), Enodios (of the road), Dolios (wily or crafty), Logios (of speech), and Kriophoros (ram-bearer).
Cult titles such as Hermes Psychopompos, Hermes Enodios, and Hermes Kriophoros highlight specific sides of his worship, like guiding the dead, protecting travelers on roads, or watching over flocks. Common descriptive titles call him messenger of the gods, guide of souls, guardian of roads and travelers, patron of merchants and thieves, and herald of Zeus.
The meaning of his name is usually linked with boundaries, cairns, or heaps of stones (hermai), though its exact sense is still uncertain. It is often connected with Greek herma (ἕρμα, boundary stone or cairn) and with the hermai, the pillar-herms that marked boundaries and roads, while its precise Indo-European origin is not clear.
His epithets and roles appear in many ancient texts, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Homeric Hymns, Pindar’s Odes, and Pausanias’ Description of Greece.
Family and Relationships
In Greek myth, Hermes is the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and the nymph Maia. This makes him one of the Olympian gods and gives him many divine half-siblings, including Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and other children of Zeus. He is also a half-brother to heroes such as Heracles and Perseus, and in some traditions a half-brother to Helen.
Hermes is not usually tied to one fixed spouse or consort. He has several lovers, including Aphrodite, Dryope, Penelopeia in some accounts, and various nymphs and mortal women. His children include Pan, Hermaphroditus, Autolycus, Myrtilus, Abderus, Eudoros, and, in some traditions, Angelia. Through Autolycus, Hermes is sometimes named as an ancestor of Odysseus in certain genealogies.
He is often linked with Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Odysseus, and Perseus and commonly appears as their helper or companion. His rivals and enemies include Argus Panoptes, whom he kills, the giant Hippolytus in some traditions, and other figures whom he tricks or robs with his usual cunning.
Domains and Powers
Hermes is connected with many areas of life. These include communication and messages, boundaries and crossings, roads and travel, commerce and trade, thievery and cunning, heralds and diplomacy, athletics and contests, dreams and omens, and guiding souls to the Underworld.
He is especially important to travelers and wayfarers, merchants and traders, heralds and messengers, thieves and tricksters, shepherds and their flocks, athletes and gymnasia, and people who practice oratory and negotiation. He is also linked with young male citizens and with the boundary between the mortal world and the Underworld.
As a patron, Hermes protects travelers, watches over merchants and marketplaces, favors thieves and swindlers, and supports heralds and athletes. He also protects shepherds and their flocks. His powers include swift movement between Olympus, earth, and the Underworld; carrying and explaining the messages of the gods; guiding the souls of the dead as psychopomp; granting or improving eloquence and persuasion; bringing sleep and dreams; and using great cunning, trickery, and theft.
He is credited with inventing and mastering musical instruments and tools, crossing and guarding boundaries and thresholds, and granting good fortune in trade and profit. Hermes is still under the authority of Zeus as king of the gods, and his trickster nature can cause mistrust among both gods and mortals.
In the sky, he is associated with the planet Hermes, later known as Mercury, and he is linked with dawn and other in-between times of day. In relation to the Underworld, he has regular, accepted access as guide of souls, but he does not rule that realm.
Myths and Narratives
In Greek stories, Hermes appears as a clever, fast, and helpful Olympian who moves between gods, mortals, and the dead. He often relies on trickery and quick thinking. His myths highlight his gifted infancy, his work as divine messenger, his help and protection for heroes, and his role as psychopomp.
Famous stories include his birth and childhood, which lead up to the theft of Apollo’s cattle; the invention of the lyre and his later reconciliation with Apollo; the killing of the many-eyed giant Argus Panoptes and the freeing of Io on Zeus’s orders; his guidance and help to Odysseus; his aid to Perseus in the quest against Medusa; his regular escorting of souls to Hades; his part in the Judgement of Paris in some versions; and his link with the founding or protection of boundaries and hermai.
These stories appear in many myth collections, including the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the Homeric epics (Iliad and Odyssey), and various heroic cycles such as those of Perseus, Heracles, and the Trojan War.
Among his major feats are the theft and hiding of Apollo’s cattle as a newborn, including the clever disguising of their tracks; the invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell, which he later gives to Apollo; the killing of Argus to free Io; guiding King Priam safely to Achilles’ camp during the Trojan War; giving Odysseus the herb moly to resist Circe’s magic; escorting the souls of the suitors and other dead to the Underworld; and giving Perseus guidance and magical gear in the quest for Medusa.
In myth, he is the divine messenger and herald of Zeus, a trickster and bringer of culture, a protector and guide of chosen heroes, a go-between for gods and mortals, and a psychopomp who leads souls after death. He is also known for using disguises and invisibility in different stories, often helped by his cap or other special items.
Main literary sources for his myths include the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, tragedies ascribed to Aeschylus and plays by Euripides, Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, Pausanias’ Description of Greece, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which keeps Greek traditions in Roman form.
Cult and Worship
The cult of Hermes is known from the Archaic Greek period through the Classical and Hellenistic eras and into the Roman Imperial period. He is especially linked with Arcadia, especially Mount Cyllene, and also with major cities such as Athens, Boeotia, and Thessaly, as well as with gymnasia and palaestrae across the Greek world.
People worshipped him at many kinds of sites. These included herms—pillar-statues set up at boundaries, along roads, and in front of houses and public buildings—as well as sanctuaries and small shrines in marketplaces and gymnasia, and rural shrines in pastoral areas, especially in Arcadia.
Festivals for him included the Hermaia, athletic and youth-centered celebrations held in several cities, including Athens, and local Arcadian festivals that honored him as a shepherd-god. Rituals focused on setting up and anointing herms at boundaries, crossroads, and public places, with travelers and merchants making offerings and libations at these markers.
Athletic contests and games, especially for youths, were held in his honor. Animal sacrifices, such as goats or sheep, were offered in pastoral settings. Those who took part in his cult included young male citizens and athletes, merchants and traders, shepherds and rural communities, and city officials and heralds.
His worship sometimes blended with local boundary and pastoral gods in Arcadia and other regions. In later times he was identified and combined with the Roman god Mercury.
Symbolism and Iconography
In art, Hermes is usually shown as a beardless or lightly bearded young man with a slim, athletic body. He is often pictured in motion to show his speed. He commonly wears a petasos, a broad-brimmed traveler’s hat that may be winged, and winged sandals (talaria) that stand for his swiftness.
He usually carries a herald’s staff, the kerykeion or caduceus, and sometimes appears as a shepherd carrying a ram on his shoulders in the Kriophoros type. Many scenes show him leading souls or walking with heroes, which highlights his roles as guide and helper. He appears often on vase paintings, reliefs, and coins as a messenger or guide.
His main symbols and items include the kerykeion (later shown with two entwined serpents in art), winged sandals, the petasos, and a short cloak or chlamys. Herms—pillar-statues with a head and phallus marking boundaries—also belong to him, as do purses or money-bags for commerce, rams or sheep for his pastoral side, and the tortoise and lyre, which recall his mythical inventions.
Key items linked with him are the kerykeion, winged sandals, petasos, and herms as boundary markers. Symbolically, he is tied to air and movement through space and is linked with in-between places such as crossroads and thresholds.
His image became the standard picture of a divine messenger in Greek vase painting and sculpture. It strongly shaped later Roman images of Mercury and stayed popular in Renaissance and later European art as a sign of eloquence, commerce, and speed.
Origins and Development
The beginnings of Hermes in Greek religion may go back to the Bronze Age, with possible, though uncertain, mentions in Linear B tablets as a theophoric element. Clear literary references appear in the works of Homer and Hesiod.
Early tradition ties him closely to Arcadia, especially Mount Cyllene, where his birth was placed and where he was honored in pastoral settings. Some modern views suggest that he may come in part from pre-Greek or local Arcadian pastoral and boundary gods, as well as from earlier herm-type boundary stones and pillar cults.
Over time, Hermes grew from a local Arcadian and boundary god into a major pan-Hellenic Olympian. In epic and later literature, his role as messenger and psychopomp became more prominent, and in the Classical and Hellenistic periods his patronage of commerce and rhetoric became more important.
Through interpretatio Romana he was identified with the Roman god Mercury. In later antiquity, some philosophical traditions at times linked him with the Logos or Reason. Modern scholarship discusses how far his origins may be pre-Greek or non-Indo-European and looks at the exact etymology of his name and its tie to hermai.
Sacred Animals and Plants
Several animals and plants are linked with Hermes in cult and myth. Sacred animals include the ram and sheep, which show his role as a pastoral and shepherd god, especially in his Kriophoros aspect. The tortoise is tied to the story in which he makes the lyre from a tortoise shell, and the rooster appears in some traditions, connected with dawn and watchfulness in line with his liminal and heraldic roles.
Animals sacrificed to him include goats, sheep, and, in some places, pigs. Among plants, the strawberry tree appears in some local traditions, and he may be connected with certain boundary or wayside plants, though evidence for these links is limited.
Together, these animals and plants highlight his roles in caring for flocks, inventing music, and watching over liminal times and places.
Sacred Objects and Attributes
Hermes is strongly tied to certain sacred objects and attributes that match his divine roles. The most important are herms, the pillar-statues used as boundary markers and cult objects, and the kerykeion or caduceus, his herald’s staff that shows his authority as divine messenger.
Ritual tools under his care include the herald’s staff carried by human heralds and the anointed herms that served as main points for offerings. Although he is not mainly a war god, he is sometimes shown with a sword or sickle in the story of killing Argus, but such weapons are not usual for him.
His gear includes the petasos and cloak, which are traveler’s clothing rather than armor. In some later traditions he is linked with a cap of invisibility, more often associated with Hades. Notable artifacts tied to him are his winged sandals (talaria), the kerykeion, and the lyre he invented and later gave to Apollo.
Herms show his role as a god of boundaries, roads, and protection. The kerykeion stands for his work as herald, mediator, and bringer of messages and peace. The winged sandals represent his speed and free movement between different realms.
Sanctuaries and Cult Sites
Hermes was honored at many sanctuaries and cult sites across the Greek world. Major sanctuaries included those on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, connected with his birth and pastoral cult, and important cult places in gymnasia, especially in Athens.
Local shrines and altars for him were very common, especially in the form of herms and small shrines at crossroads, gates, and boundaries throughout Greek lands. There were also altars in marketplaces (agorai), where he was honored as patron of commerce.
No specific oracular sites stand out for him, but his presence is noted in many real locations, including Mount Cyllene, the Athenian Agora, and various Greek city-states where herms were set up.
Archaeological evidence for his cult includes stone herms with inscriptions and dedicatory reliefs, votive offerings and inscriptions from gymnasia and agorai, and remains of rural shrines in Arcadia and other regions.
Rituals and Offerings
Rituals and offerings to Hermes took many forms and were common in different places. The Hermaia was a well-known festival in his honor, held at different times depending on the city and often linked with the training and celebration of youths.
Offerings at herms were made often by travelers and merchants and were not limited to one season. Usual offerings included libations of wine or oil poured on herms, garlands and wreaths hung on them, animal sacrifices such as goats, sheep, or pigs depending on the area, and dedicatory inscriptions and small votive objects left at shrines.
Ritual actions included anointing herms with oil, touching or kissing them for protection before journeys, and holding athletic contests, races, and games during the Hermaia. These events often came with processions of youths in gymnasia.
Those who took part in these rites included ephebes and young male citizens in athletic festivals, travelers and merchants making vows and thanks-offerings, and city officials and heralds who called on Hermes before public business. Main ritual objects were the herms themselves, wreaths and garlands, and oil flasks used for anointing.
The mutilation of herms at Athens in 415 BCE was seen as a serious sacrilege. This shows the strong sacred status of these objects and, by extension, of Hermes’ cult.
Interpretations and Reception
In antiquity, Hermes was often seen as a personification of luck, chance, and profitable gain in commerce. Some philosophical writers understood him as a divine Logos or Reason because of his key role in communication. He was also viewed as a god of boundaries and liminal spaces, moving between different realms and states of being.
Philosophical and allegorical traditions, including Stoic and later schools, sometimes identified him with the rational principle or cosmic mind behind communication and described him as the human intellect or speech in rhetorical and philosophical texts.
In comparative mythology, he has been compared with other Indo-European or Near Eastern messenger and trickster gods, though specific matches differ among modern writers. Later religious receptions include his treatment by early Christian authors as a pagan god and example of idolatry, and his link with astrological and Hermetic traditions through his identification with Mercury.
Modern studies often highlight Hermes as a liminal and boundary-crossing figure in structuralist and anthropological work and show strong interest in him as a classic trickster in comparative religion and folklore. He is important in the rise of Hermeticism, though that tradition mainly centers on the blended figure Hermes Trismegistus, who is not the same as the purely mythological Hermes.
Roman Equivalents
The Roman equivalent of Hermes is Mercury (Mercurius). In later blended contexts he is sometimes called Mercurius Psychopompus. Under interpretatio Romana, Greeks and Romans regularly equated Hermes with Mercury as the messenger of the gods and patron of commerce and travelers.
In Roman religion, Mercury had major temples and official cults, including a main temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome. Roman worship of Mercury put stronger focus on commercial and financial sides, such as tax collection and trade guild activities. His iconography often followed Greek models but was adjusted to Roman clothing and social settings.
Shared and merged cults of Hermes–Mercury were common in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, especially in provincial areas where Greek and Roman traditions mixed. Roman literary and inscriptional sources that show this identification include Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Virgil’s Aeneid, Livy’s History of Rome, and various Latin inscriptions and cult calendars.
Modern Legacy
Hermes still appears often in modern culture and thought. He shows up as a character in modern retellings of Greek myth, including novels, comics, and children’s books, and appears in fantasy and young adult series that draw on Greek mythology.
From the Renaissance onward, literature uses him as a symbol of eloquence, speed, and trickery, and he is often called on in poetic and rhetorical works as a patron of communication and wit.
In visual and performing arts, he has been a popular subject in Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture, usually shown in flight or acting as a messenger. He appears in allegorical art to stand for commerce, communication, or speed.
In modern popular culture, his name and image are used in brand names and logos related to delivery, communication, and finance. He appears in films, television, comics, and games that feature Greek gods and heroes.
Some modern Hellenic polytheists and neopagan practitioners honor Hermes as a living god linked with communication, travel, and liminality. His name is also used for companies, communication systems, and transport services. He is associated with the chemical element mercury and the planet Mercury through classical naming traditions.