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Hermes-Mercury
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HERMES

HERMES was the Olympian god of herds and flocks, travellers and hospitality, roads and trade, thievery and cunning, heralds and diplomacy, language and writing, athletic contests and gymnasiums, astronomy and astrology. He was the herald and personal messenger of Zeus, King of the Gods, and also the guide of the dead who led souls down into the underworld.

Hermes was depicted as either a handsome and athletic, beardless youth or as an older, bearded man, with winged boots and a herald's wand.
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HERMES was the Olympian god of herds and flocks, travellers and hospitality, roads and trade, thievery and cunning, heralds and diplomacy, language and writing, athletic contests and gymnasiums, astronomy and astrology. He was the herald and personal messenger of Zeus, King of the Gods, and also the guide of the dead who led souls down into the underworld. Hermes was depicted as either a handsome and athletic, beardless youth or as an older, bearded man, with winged boots and a herald's wand.
God of commerce and luck, patron of travelers, thieves, and merchants, and champion of athletes and athletic competitions, Hermes was a wily trickster who often put his own amusement over the interests of the gods. As herald and messenger of the gods, Hermes delivered the news, advice, and commands that maintained order and often sustained their fragile, tumultuous relationships. Hermes could also be unpredictable, however. Driven by impish designs and a fondness for sport, Hermes routinely tricked, lied, and—in several well-known instances—stole from the gods. Like other trickster gods, Hermes tested norms, challenged conventions, and crossed boundaries. He was neither good nor evil, although he was capable of both; he instead chose to be the figure at the center of things, one who tilted chaotically in one direction or the other according to whim alone (hence his ability to be the patron of both thieves and merchants). Hermes’ oscillations between good and evil were mirrored by his ability to move among Olympus, the mortal world, and the underworld. For the ancient Greeks who worshiped him, Hermes represented the disorder and moral relativism they saw in the world.
Hermes (/ˈhɜːrmiːz/; Greek: Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves,[3] merchants, and orators.[4][5] He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine, aided by his winged sandals. Hermes plays the role of the psychopomp or "soul guide"—a conductor of souls into the afterlife.[6][7]
Hermes, a son of Zeus and Maia, the daughter of Atlas, was born in a cave of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia,1 whence he is called Atlantiades or Cyllenius; but Philostratus2 places his birth in Olympus. In the first hours after his birth, he escaped from his cradle, went to Pieria, and carried off some of the oxen of Apollo.3 In the Iliad and Odyssey this tradition is not mentioned, though Hermes is characterized as a cunning thief.4 Other accounts, again, refer the theft of the oxen to a more advanced period of the life of the god.5 In order not to be discovered by the traces of his footsteps, Hermes put on sandals, and drove the oxen to Pylos, where he killed two, and concealed the rest in a cave.6 The skins of the slaughtered animals were nailed to a rock, and part of their flesh was prepared and consumed, and the rest burnt; at the same time he offered sacrifices to the twelve gods, whence he is probably called the inventor of divine worship and sacrifices.7 Hereupon he returned to Cyllene, where he found a tortoise at the entrance of his native cave. He took the animal's shell, drew strings across it, and thus invented the lyre and plectrum. The number of strings of his new invention is said by some to have been three and by others seven, and they were made of the guts either of oxen or of sheep.8
A prankster and inventive genius from birth, Hermes was the messenger of the gods and guide of dead souls to the Underworld. He aided the heroes Odysseus and Perseus in their quests. Hermes was the son Zeus and a mountain nymph. As a newborn he was remarkably precocious. On his very first day of life, he found the empty shell of a tortoise and perceived its utility as a sounding chamber. Stringing sinews across it, he created the first lyre. Hermes was known for his helpfulness to mankind, both in his capacity as immortal herald and on his own initiative.
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