Who's Who Greek Myth: Hermes

Born in Arcadia (Peloponnese) Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia and the brother of Apollo. Just after his birth he saw a tortoise and killed it, fashioning the first lyre from its shell, with seven animal strings stretched across it.

Then his hunger led him to steal Apollo's cows, a deed which he denied when Apollo confronted him./He was forced by Zeus to reveal the location of the stolen cows, playing his lyre on the way, and giving it to Apollo on seeing that the music moved him, as a gesture of appeasement.

Apollo, in return, gave Hermes a golden caduceus, which had prophetic powers, his own power over animals, and the role as Conductor of souls to Hades.

In this latter role as messenger of the gods, he was most often depicted wearing a wide-brimmed hat, winged shoes (or wings on his head or shoulders) and carrying a herald's staff.

He was also the god of commerce, thievery, boundaries, travel, and herdsmen. Up until the 5th century BC, however, he was depicted with a beard, appearing as a young, slim-bodied god for the first time in the Parthenon frieze, and later in the most famous statue of him by Praxiteles (330 BC) at Olympia, in which he carries the infant Dionysos on his arm, taking him to the nymphs who will raise him. Hermes also had the power to become invisible, by wearing a cap known as the 'Aidos kyni'. In his role as messenger of the gods, it was he who went down to the underworld as a mouthpiece of Zeus, to ask Hades to allow Persephone to return to her mother in the upper world..