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Historical person

Hermes

Hermes was the Greek god of travellers, messengers, boundaries, trade and cunning. He acts as a guide between worlds, protects travellers and thieves, and frequently assists heroes through negotiation or deception.

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes presents him as a precocious inventor and trickster who steals Apollo’s cattle and creates the lyre. His role as herald and psychopomp made him one of the most versatile gods in Greek and later Roman religious culture, where he was identified with Mercury.

Homer’s The Iliad gives Hermes a decisive late role when he guides the aged Priam safely through the Greek camp to Achilles so that the Trojan king can ransom Hector’s body. In The Odyssey, Hermes acts repeatedly as a divine intermediary: he gives Odysseus the herb moly against Circe’s magic and later carries Zeus’s order to Calypso that the long-detained hero must finally be allowed to leave her island.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Hermes (1 series)

Penguin Classics: Ancient World in Order

by various authors 32 books 4.6(13,212)

Penguin Classics: Ancient World brings together foundational works of literature, history, philosophy, drama and poetry from the earliest civilisations through classical Greece and Rome. The wider Penguin Classics series began in 1946 with E. V. Rieu’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey, reflecting its original aim of making important texts…

All books in this series