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Hermes

The Winged Messenger

Domain: Travel, Commerce & Cunning
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Element: Air
Relics of Power: Serpentine Caduceus

Speak with Hermes

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Hermes is the Greek god of travelers, messengers, herds, exchange and cunning, son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. He was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia and, according to the Homeric Hymn, invented the lyre on his first day of life and stole Apollo’s cattle the same night. In Homer’s poems he appears as the helper whom Zeus sends out: he guides Priam through the Achaean camp, gives Odysseus the moly herb against Circe, and leads the shades of the suitors down to Hades.

20 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Caduceus, winged sandals, winged helm, tortoise and the rooster

Family

Parents

ZeusMaia

Siblings

Apollo Artemis Athena Ares Dionysus Hephaestus Persephone

Hermes

Unions

AphroditePenelopeDaughter of Dryops

Children

PanAutolycusHermaphroditus

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 938–939; Hino Homérico a Hermes 1–9; Hino Homérico a Pã (19) 27–47; Apolodoro, Epítome 7.38; Apolodoro, Biblioteca 1.9.16; Homero, Ilíada 16.179–186

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Homer, Iliad. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924. read
Homer, Odyssey. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919. read
Hesiod, Theogony. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Pausanias, Description of Greece, books 1, 5, 7, 8 and 9. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Apollodorus, Library, books 2 and 3. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read
Homer, Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 1. translation: Brookes More, 1922. read
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, book 6. translation: R. Crawley, Dent, 1910. read

Studies

Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, 1985.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Norman O. Brown, Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth. University of Wisconsin Press, 1947.
Theoi Project, Hermes. Aaron J. Atsma, 2000–2017. open
R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill, 2010.
Wikipedia, Hermes. Wikimedia Foundation (accessed), 2026. open
Wikipedia, Hermes and the Infant Dionysus. Wikimedia Foundation (accessed), 2026. open

Name and epithets

The Greek name Ἑρμῆς (Hermês) has dialect variants, such as Ἑρμᾶς (Hermâs, in Doric and Boeotian) and Ἑρμάων (Hermáōn, in Hesiod).

In the ancient sources

Homer, Iliad, 8th c. BC (traditional dating). Hermes appears in the history of Agamemnon’s scepter, in the rescue of Ares, as father of Eudorus and, above all, as Priam’s guide to the tent of Achilles.

The myths

The birth, the lyre and Apollo’s cattle. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes begins with Maia, a shy nymph who lived in a shadowy cave, where Zeus visited her by night while Hera slept, unseen by gods or mortals.

Worship and archaeology

Hermes’s presence in ordinary life appears clearly in Thucydides, who describes the herms of Athens as the customary square stone figures so common in the doorways of private houses and temples.

How the god was depicted

In Greek art Hermes may be an athletic, beardless youth or an older, bearded man, with winged boots and the herald’s wand, the kerykeion.

What scholars debate

Etymology: boundary stones or a Pre-Greek name?. The oldest and most repeated derivation links Hermes to herma, the heap of boundary stones. R. S. P.

After antiquity

The Romans identified Hermes with Mercury, whose name is usually linked to the Latin merx, “merchandise,” and who combined traits of the Greek god and of the Etruscan Turms.

Did you know?

In the Iliad, Dione recalls that the Aloadae bound Ares in a bronze jar for thirteen months, and that their stepmother, Eëriboea, told Hermes, who stole the god of war out when the bonds were already overpowering him.

Codex relic

Serpentine Caduceus. A staff entwined by two serpents that grants free passage between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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