Hermes

Family: Olympian · Role: god · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.6

🌐 Also appears in: The Iliad (as Mercury) · The Odyssey (as Mercury) · The Aeneid (as Mercury) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Mercury) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Hermes)

Hermes is an Olympian god. In Apollodorus, Library 1.6, he and Aegipan stole Zeus’s sinews and restored them to him, while wearing Hades’ helmet he slew Hippolytus. In Library 1.7, he rescued Ares by stealth and was sent by Zeus to Deucalion, who was allowed to choose what he would. In Library 2.1, while stealing the cow guarded by Argus, Hermes killed Argus after Hierax revealed the attempt: “he killed Argus by the cast of a stone”.

In Library 2.4, Hermes gave a sword to Heracles, and in Library 2.6 he sold Heracles. Abderus was his son and a minion of Heracles. In Library 3.2, Hermes loved Apemosyne and caused her to slip on hides as she fled from him, after which she was deflowered. In Library 3.4, Zeus entrusted Dionysus to Hermes, who conveyed him to Ino and Athamas.

At Cyllene, Maia gave birth to Hermes as the son of Zeus. Zeus appointed him herald to himself and the infernal gods. Hermes was also the father of Cephalus, Myrtilus, and Pan; he brought Protesilaus up from Hades, gave Odysseus the moly that protected him from Circe’s enchantment, and carried out Zeus’s commands involving Atreus, Thyestes, and Alexander.