Hermes

Myth and origin

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes (fourth in the collection, c. seventh-sixth century BCE) is the great mythographic source for his early life. Born in a cave on Mount Kyllene in Arcadia at dawn, by noon Hermes had invented the lyre by stretching strings across a tortoise shell, and by evening he had stolen the cattle of his elder brother Apollo, driving them backward to confuse the trail and shoeing himself in bark sandals to disguise his footprints. Apollo discovered the theft, brought the infant to Zeus, and was eventually placated when Hermes presented him with the lyre. The brothers were reconciled, and Apollo gave Hermes the golden caduceus and the right to deliver oracles by lot.

Hesiod (Theogony 938-939) and Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 3.10.2) preserve the canonical genealogy. Hermes's very name probably derives from herma, the stone pile or pillar marking boundaries, crossroads, and tombs—the rough-hewn hermai with bearded head and ithyphallic body stood at street corners throughout classical Athens. His Mycenaean ancestry is attested at Pylos as E-ma-a2. He is one of the most archaic Greek gods, his function as guardian of thresholds preceding the cosmopolitan Olympian system, his profile shaped by pastoral Arcadian roots before his sophistication as patron of cities and commerce.

Attributes and stories

You recognise Hermes by his winged sandals and hat, his herald's wand entwined with two serpents (later confused with the Aesculapian rod of medicine), his herald's tunic, and his accompanying ram or rooster. Praxiteles' Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus (c. 340 BCE), discovered at Olympia in 1877, remains the most celebrated classical image of the god. His sanctuaries at Pheneos, Tanagra, and the great cave at Mount Kyllene preserved his Arcadian cult; in classical Athens the Hermai were so numerous that their mutilation on the eve of the Sicilian expedition in 415 BCE caused a religious panic.

Hermes's narratives emphasise his versatility. He guides Priam through the Greek camp to ransom Hektor's body (Iliad 24). He escorts Odysseus past Circe with the gift of the moly plant (Odyssey 10). He brings Persephone back from the underworld and conducts the souls of the dead downward as psychopompos. He invents the alphabet, the lyre, weights and measures, and the practice of athletic exercise. He fathers Pan (the panicked goat-god of nature), Hermaphroditus (the boundary-crossing dual being), and—in the later Hermetic tradition—is fused with the Egyptian Thoth as Hermes Trismegistos, attributed founder of alchemy, astrology, and the spiritual sciences.

Modern reception

Jung saw Hermes as the trickster archetype, the figure of transformation who carries messages across boundaries—conscious and unconscious, sacred and profane, life and death. James Hillman in Re-Visioning Psychology (1975) and Murray Stein in Practicing Wholeness (1996) made Hermes-Mercury central to the work of soul-making and to therapy understood as hermeneutic—the very word derives from his name. Karl Kerényi's Hermes: Guide of Souls (1944) remains the classic monograph, treating him as the deity of unexpected gain, of windfall, of paths between worlds.

Astrologically, Hermes corresponds to Mercury, ruler of Gemini and Virgo, governing communication, intellect, commerce, and short journeys. Mercury retrograde periods are popularly attributed to his trickster aspect. In the Hermetic tradition (see the syncretic figure Hermes Trismegistos), he becomes the patron of alchemy, astrology, and Western esotericism. Modern practitioners invoke him for travel, communication, contracts, and as guide through liminal transitions. Take the mythological deity test to see if he is currently your patron.

Symbolic depth

In the tarot, Hermes corresponds to The Magician (Arcanum I), the figure who unites heaven and earth and who manipulates all four elemental tools on the table before him. He also informs The Fool as the eternal traveller, and The Wheel of Fortune as the agent of unexpected reversals. The eight of Pentacles names his craftsman aspect, the Knights his swift messages. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life he occupies Hod, the eighth Sephirah, the seat of Mercury, of intellect, language, and ritual magic.

Symbolically, Hermes asks you to honour the crossings of your life: doorways, decisions, deaths, departures. He is the god of the in-between, the patron of those who interpret one realm to another. His shadow appears as deception, theft, cynicism, and the slipperiness that refuses commitment. His gift is the surprising synapse, the messenger who arrives just when the message is needed. As psychopomp he reminds you that every threshold is also a small dying, and that you need a guide for the passages where ordinary speech fails. Continue with Hermes Trismegistos, Apollo, and Thoth, or return to the main glossary.

Also known as

• Mercury
• Mercurius
• Hermes Psychopompos
• Argeiphontes
• Hermes Logios