1.) I've climbed up from the zodiac to Mount Olympus to visit with Hermes. Or perhaps Hermes came down as he is of course the messenger god, a link between the gods and humans.
Hermes is at first glance a strange god: his domain includes boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travellers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of commerce in general, and of the cunning of thieves and liars. At first this seems a hodgepodge but here's some insight: He was seen to be manifest in any kind of interchange, transfer, transgressions, transcendence, transition, transit or traversal, all of which involve some form of crossing in some sense. This explains his connection with transitions in one’s fortune -- with the interchanges of goods, words and information involved in trade, interpretation, oration, writing -- with the way in which the wind may transfer objects from one place to another, and with the transition to the afterlife.
The poet, the artist, then, is something of a thief. (Interesting to note later though his interactions with Prometheus.)
Hermes gives us our word "hermeneutics" for the art of interpreting hidden meaning. He is viewed by some as a type of trickster god. Additionally, he is one of the few gods who can visit the Underworld: he escorts the new dead down to the realm of Hades.
In very ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form herma, was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones; each traveller added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BCE, Hipparchos, the son of Pisistratus, replaced the cairns that marked the midway point between each village deme at the central agora of Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of Hermes with a beard. An erect phallus rose from the base. In the more primitive Mount Kyllini or Cyllenian herms, the standing stone or wooden pillar was simply a carved phallus. These were called hermai (singular herma). (I wonder what if any connections existed between Hermes and Shiva...I'm thinking specifically of lingams.) (In February of 2007, a group of University of Chicago students fashioned a set of life-size hermai out of ice and placed them around their campus in the middle of the night as a prank.) The genitals of these hermai markers might have been rubbed for good luck.
Hermes was usually portrayed wearing a broad-brimmed traveler's hat or a winged cap (petasus), wearing winged sandals (talaria), and carrying his Near Eastern herald's staff -- either a caduceus entwined by serpents, or a kerykeion topped with a symbol similar to the astrological symbol of Taurus the bull. I can't help but have Campbell rise to mind when I see that Taurus the bull has connections with Hermes: i.e. the bull has having connections with dying and rebirth, and Hermes as the crosser, the bringer from this realm to that of Hades. He is specifically associated with roosters and tortoises, oddly?
Hermes was born of the Pleiade Maia by Zeus. In his first night alive, Hermes invented the lyre and stole away Apollo's immortal cattle. He eloquently defended himself and in the course of arguing with the gods, began playing the lyre. Apollo gave Hermes the cattle in exchange for the lyre. (wow!)
He helps King Priam sneak into the Greek camp to confront Achilles and to get him to release Hector's body, and he oversees Hypnos and Thanatos (sleep and death) on the battlefield of Troy, both in the Illiad. In the Odyssey, he advises and protects Odysseus from Circe by advising he carry with him the plant moly (which can only be picked by celestial hands and is, incidentally, likely where we obtain the expression Holy moly!). (Odysseus is related to Hermes by matrilineal descent.)
In addition, Hermes helps Io from the many-eyed giant Argus Panoptes sent by Hera (as Io was a consort of Zeus and Hera was jealous). Hermes, loyal to his father Zeus, killed the giant. Perseus is aided by Hermes, who gives him his winged sandals, Zeus' sickle, and Hades' helmet of invincibility to fight Medusa. (Athena also provides Perseus with her shield.) Later, Hermes escorts Perseus to the Underworld. Hermes is sent by Zeus to try to get the prophecy out of Prometheus (bound) but Prometheus refuses to relinquish. Interesting, because Prometheus here is a type of trickster and Hermes is portrayed as much more of a solar law-orderer. Hermes bestowed Pandora with the gift of curiosity and then brought her to the mortals.
Diogenes, speaking in jest, related the myth of Hermes taking pity on his son Pan, who was pining for Echo but unable to get a hold of her, and teaching him the trick of masturbation to relieve his suffering. Pan later taught the habit to the young shepherds.
The offspring of Hermes include Pan, Hermaphroditus, Autolycus (the Prince of Thieves and the grandfather of Odysseus), and Crocus(, among many others). According to some traditions, he also fathered Orion (his urine, with Zeus' and Poseidon's), Eros, Tyche (or Fortuna), and Priapus.
(Phew! let's rest here.)
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes,
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herma,
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moly
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