answersLogoWhite

0

Hermes is the messenger god, and is also the god of travelers, liars, thieves, and orators.
In Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and the nymph maia. A popular deity, Hermes was the messenger of the gods who often led men astray. As a psychopompos, 'leader of souls', he escorted the dead to the underworld, the realm of Hades. This function explains the later identification of the Germanic godhttp://wiki.answers.com/topic/odin with Mercury, the Roman version of Hermes: Odin was father of the slain.

Hermes was looked upon as the patron of good luck and fortune, the patron of merchants and thieves. Winged sandals helped him steal the cows belonging to his half-brother Apollo, while winged thoughts saved him from Apollo's rage, for he gave as a trespass-offering his invention, the lyre. He was also the god of roads and a god of fertility, aspects that were included in the hermeia, quadrangular pillars with a bust of the god set on top and a phalluscarved below. In their earliest form these waysideshrines of his were just heaps of stones, and travellers, seeking his protection, would add one to the heap. As time carried on, the customary gesturebecame the pouring of a libationof oil. In the third century BCTheophrastus, making fun of superstition, wrote that a certain man 'when he goes by the carved shafts at cross-roads, pours oil on them from his flask, falls on his knees, makes an obeisance, and only then moves on'. Today the mountainous roads of Greece are provided with small Christian pillar shrines, the saintlydescendants of the hermeia.

This is from Anwsers.com
Animal husbandry, roads, travel, hospitality, heralds, diplomacy, trade, thievery, language, writing, persuasion, cunning wiles, athletic contests, gymnasiums, astronomy, and Astrology
Hermes is the god of flight, stealing, and is the messenger of the gods.

User Avatar

Wiki User

15y ago

What else can I help you with?