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Algis Kemezys | all galleries >> Galleries >> Born in Stone: Classical Greek Sculpture with ancient Coins. 2010- 2025 > Hermes
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Hermes

Hermes
God of boundaries, roads, travelers, merchants, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, language, oratory, wit, and messages
Hermes is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves,[2] merchants, and orators. He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine aided by his winged sandals. Hermes plays the role of the psychopomp or "soul guide"—a conductor of souls into the afterlife

In myth, Hermes functions as the emissary and messenger of the gods,[6] and is often presented as the son of Zeus and Maia, the Pleiad. He is regarded as "the divine trickster", about which the Homeric Hymn to Hermes offers the most well-known account.[8]

Hermes's attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, talaria (winged sandals), and winged helmet or simple petasos, as well as the palm tree, goat, the number four, several kinds of fish, and incense.[9] However, his main symbol is the caduceus, a winged staff intertwined with two snakes copulating and carvings of the other gods.[10]


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