Hermes

Hermes is the witty messager of the gods, who favors cunning over strength.

Blessings

Hermes values wit and daring, dependability and promptness. He despises tediousness and idleness, and when he sees this setting in, will shake things up, just to see what happens. He aids thieves, magicians, messengers, gamblers, and public speakers.

God Of

  • Speech

Primary Cult Centers

  • Arcadia

Epithets

  • Agonios – Lord of the Games
  • Agreiphontes – Argus-Slaying
  • Diaktoros – Guide. Messenger.
  • Enodios – of the Road
  • Eriounios – Luck-bringer
  • Kerykes – Herald
  • Khthonios – of the Earth
  • Kourotrophos – Protector of Youth
  • Kranaios – ?
  • Kriophoros – Ram-bearer
  • Logios – of Speech
  • Nomios – Protector of Flocks
  • Polutropos – The Many Turning One. The Well Traveled
  • Propulaios – Before the Gates
  • Psychopompos – Guide of the Dead. Conductor of Souls
  • Trismegestos – Thrice-Greatest

Symbols

Caduceus, winged boots, a cap, 4

Animals

Ram, boar

Sacrifices

Frankincense, storax, mastic, white sandal, mace, moly, nettles, asafoetida, ginger, opal, mercury, marjolane

Festivals

  • Fourth (4th each month) Hermes, Aphrodite and Eros’ sacred day
  • Hermaia (various dates) .
  • Khutroi (13 Anthesterion (February – March)) .

Ways to honor

Be cunning and daring. Work smarter, not harder. Study divination and magic – both of the sacred and the stage variety. Gamble. Travel, especially if you find yourself in a rut. If you drop change, leave it. If you find some, pick it up and thank Hermes for the gift. Always deliver messages entrusted to you, especially those to and from the dying. Sit with a dying friend or relative. Be their guide to the next world.

More…

Articles

Ancient Hymns and Texts

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Modern Hymns and Devotions

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Primary Sources

  • Aeschylus’ Eumenides, and Prometheus Bound
  • Apollodorus’ Library 1.6.2-3, 2.1.3, 2.4.2-3, 3.2.1, 3.4.3, 3.10.2
  • Dio Chrysostom’s Orations 78.19
  • Euripides’ Ion
  • Herodotus’ The Histories 2.51, 2.67, 2.138
  • Hesiod’s Theogony 440, 938
  • Hesiod’s Works and Days 65
  • Homer’s Iliad 24.330, 24.334-469, 24.679-694, 182, 437-439, 461
  • Homer’s Odyssey 5.145, 5.28-148, 8.320, 10.275-308, 24.1-10
  • Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.334-384, 407
  • Homeric Hymn to Hermes 4
  • Homeric Hymn to Hestia 29
  • Hyginus’ Fabulae 195
  • Hyginus’ Poetica Astronomica 2.7, 2.16, 2.42
  • Ovid’s Metamorphoses 2.685-835, 8.618-724, 11.303-317, 4.288-293
  • Ovid’s Fasti 5.667
  • Pausanias’ Description of Greece 1.24.3, 2.19.7, 2.3.4, 4.33.3, 5.19.5, 5.7.10, 7.20.3, 8.16.1, 8.17.5, 8.36.10 9.5.8, 9.30.1
  • Papyri Graeci Magicae 5.172-212, 5.403-407, 7.672-676, 7.919-924, 17b.5,
  • Pindar’s Olympian Odes 6.79-80
  • Pindar’s Pythian Odes 2.10, 12
  • Plato’s Cratylus 407e-408a
  • Plato’s Phaedrus 264c
  • Sophocles’ Searching Satyrs

Links

Modern Books

Hermes