Volume II Part 26 (1/2)

HERMES.

Another child of Zeus whose elemental origin and character have been much debated is Hermes. The meaning of the name** is confessedly obscure.

Opinion, then, is divided about the elemental origin of Hermes and the meaning of his name. His character must be sought, as usual, in ancient poetic myth and in ritual and religion. Herodotus recognised his rites as extremely old, for that is the meaning of his remark*** that the Athenians borrowed them from the Pelasgians, who are generally recognised as prehistoric Greeks.

** Preller, i. 307. The name of Hermes is connected by Welcker (Griesch. Got., i. 342) with (-----), and he gives other examples of the aeolic use of o for e. Compare Curtius's Greek Etymology, English translation, 1886, vol.

i. p. 420. Mr. Max Muller, on the other hand (Lectures, ii.

468), takes Hermes to be the son of the Dawn. Curtius reserves his opinion. Mr. Max Muller recognises Saramejas and Hermes as deities of twilight. Preller (i. 309) takes him for a G.o.d of dark and gloaming.

*** Herod., ii. 61.

In the rites spoken of, the images of the G.o.d were in one notable point like well-known Bushmen and Admiralty Island divine representations, and like those of Priapus.* In Cyllene, where Hermes was a great resident G.o.d, Artemidorus** saw a representation of Hermes which was merely a large phallus, and Pausanias beheld the same sacred object, which was adored with peculiar reverence.*** Such was Hermes in the Elean region, whence he derived his name, Cyllenian.**** He was a G.o.d of ”the liberal shepherds,” conceived of in the rudest aspect, perhaps as the patron of fruitfulness in their flocks. Manifestly he was most unlike the graceful swift messenger of the G.o.ds, and guide of the ghosts of men outworn, the giver of good fortune, the lord of the crowded market-place, the teacher of eloquence and of poetry, who appears in the literary mythology of Greece. Nor is there much in his Pelasgian or his Cyllenian form to suggest the elemental deity either of gloaming, or of twilight, or of the storm.*****

* Can the obscene story of Cicero (De Nat. Deor., iii. 22, 56) be a repet.i.tion of the sacred chapter by which Herodotus says the Pelasgians explained the attribute of the image?

** Artem., i. 45.

*** Paus., vi. 26, 3.

**** Homeric Hymns, iii. 2.

***** But see Welcker, i. 343, for connection between his name and his pastoral functions.

But whether the pastoral Hermes of the Pelasgians was refined into the messenger-G.o.d of Homer, or whether the name and honours of that G.o.d were given to the rude Priapean patron of the shepherds by way of bringing him into the Olympic circle, it seems impossible to ascertain. These combinations lie far behind the ages of Greece known to us in poetry and history. The province of the G.o.d as a deity of flocks is thought to be attested by his favourite companion animal the ram, which often stood beside him in works of art.* In one case, where he is represented with a ram on his shoulder, the legend explained that by carrying a ram round the walls he saved the city of Tanagra from a pestilence.** The Arcadians also represented him carrying a ram under his arm.*** As to the phallic Hermae, it is only certain that the Athenian taste agreed with that of the Admiralty Islanders in selecting such unseemly images to stand beside every door. But the connection of Hermes with music (he was the inventor of the lyre, as the Homeric Hymn sets forth) may be explained by the musical and poetical character of old Greek shepherd life.

If we could set aside the various elemental theories of Hermes as the storm-wind, the twilight, the child of dawn, and the rest, it would not be difficult to show that one moral conception is common to his character in many of its varied aspects. He is the G.o.d of luck, of prosperity, of success, of fortunate adventure. This department of his activity is already recognised in Homer. He is giver of good luck.****

He is ”Hermes, who giveth grace and glory to all the works of men”.

Hence comes his Homeric name, the luck-bringer. The last cup at a feast is drunk to his honour ”for luck”.

* Pausanias, ii. 8, 4.

** For Hermes, G.o.d of herds and flocks, see Preller, i.

322-325.

*** Pausanias, v. 27, 5.

**** Iliad, xiv. 491; Od. 15, 319.

Where we cry ”Shares!” in a lucky find, the Greek cried ”Hermes in common!” A G.o.dsend was (------). Thus among rough shepherd folk the luck-bringing G.o.d displayed his activity chiefly in making fruitful the flocks, but among city people he presided over the mart and the public a.s.sembly, where he gave good fortune, and over musical contests.* It is as the lucky G.o.d that Hermes holds his ”fair wand of wealth and riches, three-leafed and golden, which wardeth off all evil”** Hermes has thus, among his varied departments, none better marked out than the department of luck, a very wide and important province in early thought. But while he stands in this relation to men, to the G.o.ds he is the herald and messenger, and, in some undignified myths, even the pander and accomplice. In the Homeric Hymn this child of Zeus and Maia shows his versatile character by stealing the oxen of Apollo, and fas.h.i.+oning the lyre on the day of his birth. The theft is sometimes explained as a solar myth; the twilight steals the bright days of the sun-G.o.d. But he could only steal them day by day, whereas Hermes lifts the cattle in an hour.*** The surname of Hermes, is usually connected with the slaying of Argus, a supernatural being with many eyes, set by Hera to watch Io, the mistress of Zeus.****

* See also Preller, i. 326, note 3.

** Hymn, 529. See Custom and Myth, ”The Divining Rod ”.

*** Preller, i. 316, note 2; Welcker, Gr. Got, i. 338, and note 11.

**** aesch., Prom. Vinct, 568.