deity
Hermes
A Greek god of crossing, theft, speech, and the road between the living and the dead. Later readers sometimes identified him with Thoth; that identification is a later meeting, not an origin.
Also known as Hermēs
Hellenic religion
Hermes belongs to Hellenic religion.
The Homeric hymn presents Hermes as a Greek god of theft, speech, and the newborn’s cunning, born in a cave and already crossing boundaries.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Hermes is associated with Trickster.
The hymn’s Hermes steals Apollo’s cattle on his first day and talks his way out of it. The trick is a Greek poetic role, not a Yoruba or Tlingit one.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Hermes is associated with Knowledge.
The hymn’s Hermes invents the lyre and bargains with Apollo. The knowledge is craft and speech, not Hermetic revelation.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Apollo is connected to Hermes.
The Homeric hymn has Hermes steal Apollo’s cattle and then settle with him. The two gods share a poem of bargaining, not an identity.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Cave is associated with Hermes.
The Homeric hymn has Hermes born in a cave. The cave is a Greek poetic birthplace, not a tomb Duat.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Talaria is sacred to Hermes.
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes gives the god his immortal sandals. A named footwear of that god, not the caduceus, and not Icarus’ wings.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Chelys is sacred to Hermes.
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes has the god make the tortoise-lyre. A named first lyre of that god, not the harp of Orpheus, and not a generic lyre.
from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Hermeticism
Hermes is a counterpart of Thoth.
The Corpus Hermeticum speaks under the name of Hermes in a voice that claims Egyptian wisdom. That is a late antique identification of two figures, not proof they were always one being.
from Brian P. Copenhaver (translation) · Corpus Hermeticum, c. 2nd–3rd century CE (Greek treatises)
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Hermes appears in Hermeticism.
Hermetic treatises take Hermes as teacher. The Hermes of the hymn and the Hermes of the treatises should not be collapsed.
from Brian P. Copenhaver (translation) · Corpus Hermeticum, c. 2nd–3rd century CE (Greek treatises)
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Writing is associated with Hermes.
The Homeric hymn’s Hermes invents a lyre and bargains in speech. Later Hermetic books make him a teacher of written secrets; those are two Hermeses.
from Brian P. Copenhaver (translation) · Corpus Hermeticum, c. 2nd–3rd century CE (Greek treatises)
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Astrology
Hermes is a counterpart of Planet Mercury.
The planet was named for Hermes. Walking from the god should also reach the wanderer without merging hymn and handbook.
from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE
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Planet Mercury is a counterpart of Hermes.
Greek astronomers named the innermost wanderer for Hermes. The name is a correspondence, not a proof that the god and the light are one being.
from Claudius Ptolemy · Tetrabiblos, c. 150 CE
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Roman religion
Hermes is a counterpart of Roman religion.
Romans named a civic Mercury beside the Greek Hermes. Virgil inherits that naming; the cults are historically related, not identical.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
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Alchemy · Late antiquity
Hermes is historically related to Mercury (metal).
The god’s Latin name was given to the metal. Hymn and flask remain two files.
from Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), medieval Latin tradition (Arabic antecedents); Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Hermes, c. 6th–5th century BCE
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Mercury (metal) is historically related to Hermes.
Latin and later alchemical diction names quicksilver after Mercury/Hermes. The hymn’s cattle-thief is not a flask of metal.
from Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), medieval Latin tradition (Arabic antecedents)
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Late antiquity
Late antiquity is associated with Hermes.
Late antique Hermetica speak in Hermes’ name. Dating that literature is not identifying the hymn’s god with the planet or the metal.
from Brian P. Copenhaver (translation) · Corpus Hermeticum, c. 2nd–3rd century CE (Greek treatises)
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sources
- Homeric Hymn to Hermes · Anonymous (Homeric hymn)
Homeric Hymn 4, to Hermes.
- Corpus Hermeticum · Brian P. Copenhaver (translation)
Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica (Corpus Hermeticum).
- Tetrabiblos · Claudius Ptolemy
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos.
- Aeneid · Virgil
Virgil, Aeneid.
- Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet)
Tabula Smaragdina, medieval Latin Emerald Tablet.