HERMES, heemitz (called by the Romans Mercurius, and identified with their own god of that name), in Greek mythology the son of Zeus and Maia. According to legend his birth place was in the mountains of Cyllene, Arcadia. Four hours after his birth he invented the lyre, which he made by killing a tortoise and string ing the shell with three or seven strings. He then sang to it the loves of Zeus and his mother, Mafia. Having concealed the lyre in his cradle, he was seized with hunger, went in the dark evening to Pieria, and stole 50 oxen from the sacred herd of Apollo which he drove back ward and forward to confound their tracks; then walking backward himself, he drove them backward also; and after having killed two of them near the river Alpheus, roasted and sacri ficed a part to the gods. He concealed the re mainder in a cavern. He also carefully de stroyed all traces of them. The next morning Apollo missed his oxen and went in search of them, but he could discover no traces of them until an old man of Pylos told him that he had seen a boy driving a herd of oxen in a very strange manner. Apollo now discovered that Hermes was the thief. He hastened to Maia and accused •the infant, who pretended to be asleep and, not terrified by the threat of the god that he would hurl him into Tartarus, steadily maintained his innocence. Apollo, not deceived by the crafty child, carried his com plaint to Zeus. Hermes • lied even to him. Zeus perceived him to be the offender, but was not angry with him, and smiling at his cunning, ordered him to show the place where the oxen were concealed. To secure him Apollo bound his hands, but his chains fell off, and the cattle appeared bound together by twos. Hermes then began to play upon his newly-invented lyre, at which Apollo begged the instrument of the in ventor, learned of him how to play on it and gave him a whip to drive the herd, thence forth belonging to both in common.
They then concluded a compact with each other; Hermes promised never to steal Apollo's lyre or bow; the latter gave him the caduceus. The ancients represent Hermes as the herald and messenger of the gods. He conducts the souls of the departed to the lower world, and is therefore the herald of Pluto and the executor of his commands. His magic wand had the
power to close the eyes of mortals, to cause dreams and wake the slumbering. The quali ties requisite for a herald he possessed in the highest perfection, and bestowed them on others — grace, dignity and insinuating man ners. He was also the symbol of prudence, cunning and fraud, and even of perjury, and was the god of theft and robbery. In the wars of the giants he wore the helmet of Pluto, which rendered him invisible, and slew Hip polytus. When Typhon compelled the gods to fly before him and conceal themselves in Egypt, he metamorphosed himself into an ibis. He is also mentioned by Homer as the patron of eloquence, and still more particularly by Hesiod. Of his inventions Homer makes no mention. Later writers ascribe to him the invention of dice, music, geometry, the interpretation of dreaihs, measures and weights, the arts of the palmstra, letters, etc. He was also regarded as the patron of public treaties, as the guardian of roads and as the protector of travelers. He was represented in art as a boy in the prime of youth, sometimes with the caduceus, and some times with a winged cap, standing, sitting or walking. The artists of later times placed him among the youthful and beardless gods. The most prominent traits of his character are vigor and dexterity. In the representation of Hermes of a later date the relations of cor poreal beauty and mental dexterity are wonder fully preserved. Artists made the cock his symbol, on account of its vigilance or love of fighting (in allusion to gymnastics) the tor toise, on account of his invention of the lyre; the purse, because he was the god of traffic; a ram and a goblet, because he was the di rector of religious ceremonies and sacrifices; the trunk of a palm-tree, upon which his statues lean, because he was the inventor of arithmetic and writing (upon palm-leaves); the harpe or sickle-shaped knife, because he was the, slayer of Argus. Consult Lang, Andrew, (Myth, Ritual and Religion' (1887); and Far nell, (Cults of the Greek States' (Vol. V, 1909). See GREEK GODS.