Hermes: the messenger & divine trickster-the birth of Hermes and how he stole the cattle of Apollo

      Hermes-The Messenger & Divine Trickster

               

                                      (Greek Mythology Explained)

                                               👉think of your favorite deity male/female or giant crocodile it doesn't really matter now it's likely that their day t has a specific field or domain associated of them for example the god of the sky the goddess of wisdom or perhaps a deity associated to something as abstract as time it's then very easy to identify these deities because of what they're associated with and these associations commonly branch out to other things a god or goddess associated of numerous ideas is not uncommon but with Hermes we have a jack-of-all-trades and a God of many titles the messenger the trickster and the conductor of souls are just a few the sheer number of things that homies is considered to be the patron of is just one of the many reasons that he is perhaps the most unique date in the Greek pantheon we mentioned a few of his largest roles being the messenger of the gods and the conductor of souls in the afterlife but Hermes was also considered the god of trade merchants wealth in commerce as well as language crossroads sports athletes boundaries borders thieves graves and heraldry and yet somehow was still not finished because he was also the patron of shepherds the protector of travelers and the divine trickster so I think it's fair to say the ancient Greeks couldn't exactly avoid the worship of Hermes the earliest depictions of Hermes can be traced all the way back to the Mycenaeans who referred to him as Omega which isn't too different to how the Greeks pronounced his name today with the H almost been silent or sounded more like air who we call Hermes the Greeks cool Hermes the exact origins of the name homies aren't exactly to Claire but quite a few scholars believed it to have originated from the word homer which referred to a heap of stones that marked a boundary from this then derived the word homie or Hawaii which were a set of boundary markers used by travelers dedicated to Hermes and thus we can explain his association with travelers boundaries and borders just like the vast majority of Olympians it should come as no surprise to anyone that Hermes was a child of Zeus his mother on the other hand was a nymph named Maya the eldest of


        

                                                 👉👉the Pleiades the seven daughters of Atlas according to popular legend Zeus visited Mount Cellini the home of alice's daughters it was here during the dead of night that he would impregnate Maya and somehow by the crack of dawn Hermes would be born the idea of a child being conceived and born within des would certainly seem more than strange but when we consider the fact that the homies possessed unmeasurable speed a birth that took mere hours certainly isn't the weirdest thing we've seen thus far the first thing Maya did was wrap her newborn son in swaddling bands to keep him safe ah she herself rested but even as a newborn baby we start to see the trickster side of Hermes he managed to eventually squirm free of the swaddling bands and the first thing he did was run all the way from Arcadia to Thessaly where his brother Apollo graced his prized cattle Hermes then stole several of the herd and took them back home where he hid them in a small grotto near the city of pilots but that wasn't enough adventure for the newborn Hermes on his way back to his cave he caught and killed an enormous tortoise using its entrails to create the first liar Apollo believed in at his cattle had in fact been stolen then traveled to mount Cellini informing Maya that he believed homeys was responsible Maya tonin see her son still wrapped where she left him claimed that Apollo's accusations could physically not be possible however Zeus had been watching his newborn son quite closely and though he was amused by his antics he demanded that he returned the cattle Hermes then proceeded to take out the lyre that he previously made and began to play the music was so enchanting that Apollo just had to have this instrument and so he made Hermes an offer he could keep the cattle that he had previously stolen but in exchange he would have to give Apollo this new instrument Hermes of course orchestrating this entire situation did not hesitate to accept the offer the lyre would go on to become one of Apollo's many symbols and he would eventually become a grand master of the instrument all thanks to his cunning baby brother Hermes the story not only explains Hermes association with thieves cattle and shepherds but we also get a brief insight into his interest and talent when it came to music not to mention how cunning homeys was being able to tricking out with his brother despite being born in that very same day for those of you wondering about the Roman or the Etruscan counterpart to Hermes he went by the name of mercury and to be honest they were quite similar the Romans however did manage to narrow down Mercury's patronage to mostly just Commerce and travel so with Hermes now all no longer been a baby we can take a look at his numerous lovers children and I guess overall and being the son of Zeus homies had countless siblings a list that is far too long for me to go over in just one video but we can use the rule that if it came from Zeus than it was most likely related to Hermes similar to his father Hermes had many nymph and human lovers with the most famous of these being dry Oh pay and Merapi along with these nooks in humans Hermes also had numerous romantic relations and affairs with other goddesses including fato the goddess of persuasion and seduction Aphrodite the goddess of love and her karta the goddess of magic like many of the other Greek gods Hermes had numerous children but these children never really reached the heights of fame and notoriety of the other Greek gods offspring the child that I'm sure many of you have heard of is the god of the wild pan who does have many different fathers but there are stories that claim his parents were in fact Hermes in dry obey I'm not entirely sure who I'd consider pans father but Hermes and Pandu certainly share some characteristics such as they're fun laid-back and trickster like nature when you couple this with his impressive strength and speed Hermes being his father is definitely a distinct possibility his other children of note included Taiki the goddess of fortune and prosperity whom was mothered by Aphrodite together Aphrodite Hermes had another child by the name of hermaphrodite as' an extremely handsome young boy who fell in love with a nymph named Sal MacOS Sal Mac has prayed for the two to be united forever and eventually her prayers would be answered but perhaps not in the way that the two wished as they will merge together creating one androgynous form both man and woman hence their name been a compound of homeys and Aphrodite and later been the origins for the word hermaphrodite the rest of homies his children are either beautiful maidens or minor heroes these included marital asada was an Amazon uterus who was one of the kilise five commanders in the Trojan War and lastly Angelia who followed in her father's footsteps becoming a spirit of messages tidings and proclamation with Hermes being born on Mount Cellini in Arcadia it's no real surprise that that is the oldest known location of his worship some believe that the first temple dedicated to Hermes was constructed by king like Cohen the king of Arcadia who was turned into a wolf by Zeus because of the sheer amount of things that fell under




                                                       👉👉👉the patronage of Hermes naturally his worship would spread across the entire country with a rather large count located in Athens which then radiated through the whole land of temples and statutes been seen everywhere the statues of Hermes commonly depicted him as a young teen and that's because many saw his role as helping or guiding the young into adulthood this was most common among hunters and soldiers as they would often have some kind of ceremony that signified their transition from childhood into adulthood these often took the form of a specific hunt or battle regardless of which these were extremely stressful times for what we were considered today to be just children the image of homies at a similar age to these children we can assume bought them a certain degree of comfort and provided them with the confidence they needed to face their coming trials and tribulations during these festivals honoring Hermes it was commonplace to see animals such as goats lambs and pigs along with the customary cakes and honey however some of these festivals involved more than just a simple sacrifice in the name of Hermes the hemay were series of festivals that celebrated athletics and gymnastics and it was fairly commonplace for adults to be excluded from these festivals because they were seen as the initiation for a young boy to become a man a large portion of Hermes followers were also made up of farmers and shepherds because of his association with nature and cattle they would look to Hermes to keep their cattle healthy as well as safe and out of the way of Thieves which is quite ironic when you think about it because thieves in need of guidance would often turn to Hermes so who exactly Hermes would help in this situation I don't really know maybe he flipped a coin or maybe he just ignored them all there are also those that believe Hermes was capable of travelling through different planes of existence driftin in between whenever he was needed and that is how he could so easily travel between our land and the land of the dead being able to see worlds that were invisible to mortals as well as other deities when we see statues of homies he usually appears as a fairly young man were in a wind cap and winged sandals hold in the caduceus his wings staff entwined of two serpents which also served as his primary symbol his other many symbols included the rooster the RAM the hawk the tortoise the lyre and the strawberry tree the trait however that most people recognize Hermes form is of course his remarkable speed now for those of you wondering how fast Hermes was I can't really give you a number in terms of miles per hour but my extremely super professional guests would be really really fast hermès was also an extremely intelligent individual and there were times he may appear as a bit of a trickster by no means does that mean he was evil or cruel he appeared to have quite a strong connection to humankind when he wasn't tricking the other gods for his own amusement it would be to help humanity in some stories homies were sent by Zeus to share his knowledge of humanity and teach them the value of justice to help form a relationship between mortal and God and this arguably could be why homies show so much favor to humanity over time the image of Hermes began to change similar telev Dionysus he appeared as a mature bearded man dressed as a traveler and this highlighted the more intelligent friend and teacher to humanity which definitely paints a nice contrast between the young scantily clothed athletic depictions of Hermes there isn't much said about his time in the underworld but we know he was a conductor of souls helping furry the dead to Hades he would take his golden staff and send the dead into a deep slumber and whilst in his trance Hermes would guide them through the dark and treacherous paths before them the next time they woke they would be in Hades and this process also led many to believe that Hermes was a God of sleep and the dreams of omen which were messages sent by the dead it's believed that after the adoption of Persephone when Hermes was sent to bring her back he was soon after appointed the guide of dead souls apart from Hades Persephone and her karta Hermes was the only other day T ever really allowed to leave the underworld without any repercussions or consequence if we take a look at the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice when she's granted one day on earth to see her husband it is Hermes who escorts her to Orpheus and then back to Hades so now we finally move on to the stories of Hermes appeared in the story of homies stealing Apollo's cat was a child is definitely one of his most well known stories but perhaps the most celebrated was his Battle of August Penna pitous the giant with one hundred eyes the story begins with Hera well-being Hera by transforming a woman named IO into a cow because she was jealous that Zeus loved her she then placed the giant Penna pitous the war scene to guard the cow in some stories it was actually Zeus who transformed IO into a cow and attempt to hide her from Hera but she demanded the cow from Zeus and once again assigned the giant to guard her Hermes was then instructed by Zeus to steal the cow but the giant was warned of his arrival and so he was unable to sneak past the giant force and said to slay him in battle Hermes then used his staff to close all 100 of the Giants eyes sending him into a deep slumber he then cut off the drunks head of his golden swords and threw it off a cliff onto the rocks below when the Giants then marched in Olympus Hermes killed the giant he polito's with his gold sword when quite often Hermes can be seen would in this cold sword in battle Hermes also played a part in defeating the biggest giant of all - when Zeus faced - alone for the very first time he actually lost and after this encounter - cut out Zeus his tendons leaving him powerless and defeated Hermes however was not amongst the gods who had transformed themselves into animals and fled to Egypt he instead came to aid his father stealing back the tendons and restoring the power that - had stolen from Zeus Hermes also appears in some stories that we can consider a bit more mainstream help in Perseus to feed Medusa and convincing Calypso to free Odysseus and his men he also regularly appears in Aesop's fables one of my favorite stories is




                      

                                     👉👉👉👉the reason why Aesop believes that all craftsmen are liars and why cobblers were the worst of them Zeus ordered homeys to instill a dose of deceit in every craftsman and so Hermes took a pestle and mortar and began to grind the drug of deceitfulness into a fine powder he then applied it equally to all craftsmen except for one the last Crossman was the cobbler and there was a large amount of powder left and so homies took the remaining content of the mortar and poured it onto the cobbler making him the most dishonest craftsman and there are so many stories that feature Hermes that just like he's many children and lovers if I sat here trying to explain them all to you I'd be here all day however in terms of his fellow Olympians he would often challenge them to the Greek games as well as regularly playing tricks on them stealing artemis Aceros Aphrodite's girdle an on occasion even taking the Trident of Poseidon and there aren't too many deities brave enough to risk angering Poseidon but Hermes was clearly one of them personally I really like Hermes and not just because he's basically the God of everything but because the tricksters naca type you don't really see much in Greek myth and Hermes is definitely not your ordinary trickster despite all of his responsibilities he still somehow finds time to show his more fun sight playing tricks on the gods while never neglect in his own duties helping countless others and fighting numerous battles I do also find it extremely funny that he was conceived and born within a day and the first thing he did as a newborn baby was steal his brothers cattle Hermes very clearly cares about his fellow gods and he's firmly helping them out whenever he can but he also never really backs down when it comes to helping humanity regardless of the consequence from his fellow gods or goddesses I guess what makes hermie such a likeable respected figure was the fact that he just does everything and whatever he chooses to do he happens to be extremely good at he has all of the positive aspects and likeable characteristics you'd want to expect from a God without much of the negative the phrase jack of all trades and master of none comes to mind but Hermes is literally a jack of all trades and a master

                             

Why is Hermes the messenger god?

What is the myth of Hermes?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Hermes?

How did Hermes die?