Since you know such a glorious skill, even though you are little, sit down, my boy, and listen to what I intend. For you yourself and your mother will have renown among the immortal gods. And I shall vow this to you truly: By this spear of cornel wood, I shall make you a renowned and prosperous guide among the immortal gods, and I shall give you splendid gifts and to the end I shall not deceive you." And Hermes answered him with clever words: "Archer-god, your questions are well-considered; I do not begrudge your taking up my art. You will know it this very day. I want us to be friends, alike in what we think and what we say. You know all things in your heart, for you, son of Zeus, sit in the first place among the immortals, brave and strong. Zeus in his wisdom loves you as he rightly should and has granted you splendid gifts. And they say that you have acquired from the mouth of Zeus honors and, 0 archer-god, from him too every kind of divine oracular power. I know then that you are very rich in these gifts and you have only to make the choice of whatever you desire to learn. So, since your heart is set on playing the lyre, sing and play and be merry; accept this gift from me and you, my dear friend, bestow glory upon me. With this clear-voiced companion in your hands,' sing beautifully and well, knowing the art of proper presentation. Then with confidence take it to a luxurious feast and lovely dance and splendid revel, a thing of joy both night and day. Whoever makes demands of it after acquiring skill and knowledge is informed with sounds of every sort to delight the mind, for it is played by gentle familiarity and refuses to respond to toilsome drudgery. And whoever through lack of skill is from the first vehement in his demands is answered in return with wild and empty notes that clang upon the air. But you have only to make the choice of learning whatever you desire. To you I give this gift, splendid son of Zeus, and we both will feed the cattle of the field on the pastures in the mountain and the plain where horses also graze. Even you, shrewd bargainer that you are, ought not to be violently angry." With these words he held out the lyre and Phoebus Apollo accepted it. And he entrusted to Hermes the shining whip that he had and put him in charge of cattle herds. The son of Maia accepted this with joy. The farshooting lord Apollo, the glorious son of Leto, took the lyre in his left hand and tried it by striking succsssive notes. It sounded in startling fashion at his touch and the god sang a beautiful song in accompaniment.

Afterward the two of them turned the cows out into the sacred meadow and they, the very beautiful sons of Zeus, hastened back to snow-capped Olympus, all the while taking delight in the lyre. Zeus in his wisdom was pleased and united them both in friendship; Hermes has loved the son of Leto steadfastly and he still does even now, as is evident from the pledges made when Hermes entrusted his lovely lyre to the archer-god and Apollo took it on his arm and learned how to play. But Herrnes himself fashioned another instrument and learned another art, producing the sound of pipes that are heard from afar. This hymn to Hermes has been much admired for its content and its art. Shelley himself was one of its translators. The glib and playful treatment of both Herrnes and Apollo is often labeled typically Greek. It is typically Greek only if we mean by typical one of the many brilliant facets of Hellenic genius and a suggestion of the wide variety and scope in the conception of deity. Sincere profundity in religion qnd philosophy are as typically Greek as wit and facetious sophistication. Many of Hermes' characteristics and powers are evident from the poem. The Greek admiration for cleverness is readily apparent; it is this same admiration that condones the more dubious traits in the Eero Odysseus. Anthropomorphism and liberalism are both pushed to their extremes in the depiction of the god, Hermes, as a thief, and in the implication that thieves too must have their patron deity. The similarities between Hermes and Apollo are equally obvious. They share many attributes; the origins of both gods were probably rooted in the same pastoral society of shepherds with their interest in flocks, music, and fertility. The two are alike in appearance, splendid examples of vigorous and handsome masculinity. But Hermes is the younger and more boyish, the idealization and patron of youths in their late teens; his statue belonged in every gymnasium. Hermes is perhaps best known as the divine messenger, often delivering the dictates of Zeus himself; as such he wears a traveler's hat (petasus) and carries a herald's wand (caduceus), which sometimes bears two snakes entwined. Wings may be depicted on his hat, his sandals, and even his wand. Thus he is also the god of travelers and roads. As the guide of souls (psychopompos) to the realm of Hades under the earth, he provides another important function, which reminds us once again of his fertility connections. Statues of Hermes, called Hems (singular, Hem), are common in the ancient world; they also suggest fertility. They were square pillars with the male genitals depicted; on top of each pillar was the head of Hermes.

These phallic statues probably marked areas that were regarded as sacred or designated, at least originally, the bounds of one's home or property, hopefully to bring prosperity and luck. At any rate, in the classical period a Hem might be found in front of any house. A historical incident in the fifth century concerning Herms warns us to be wary of facile generalizations about Greek religious attitudes. In 415, on the eve of the great Athenian expedition against Sicily, the Herms of the city of Athens were mutilated during the night. The incident was very likely the exploit of a gang of spirited men flushed with wine, perhaps members of one of the political clubs. Alcibiades, the general who most ardently advocated the Sicilian expedition, was incriminated; nevertheless he was allowed to set sail. The religious scandal that ensued became a political football, and in his absence Alcibiades was charged not only with the mutilation of the Herms, but also with the parody and desecration of the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter in a private hoine. He refused to face charges and fled to Sparta. As far as we can know he was not guilty, at least of the sacrilege of the disfigurement of the Hems. Arrests were made and charges brought, but the whole episode remains to this day shrouded in mystery. This seems quite a fuss over statues of a god whom some would describe as essentially amoral or nonmoral in conception. The incident itself occurred in a period fraught with Sophistic skepticism, agnosticism, and atheism, echoed by the questions posed in the plays of the iconoclast Euripides. Among the adventures and affairs of Herrnes his union with Aphrodite is important for their offspring, Herrnaphroditus, whose story is told by Ovid (Metamorphoses 4. 285-388): Let me tell you how the fountain Salmacis got its bad reputation and why it weakens and softens limbs touched by its enervating waters. This power of the fountain is very well known; the reason for it lies hidden. A son was born to Mercury and Venus and Naiads brought him up in the cave of Mount Ida. You could recognize his mother and father in his beauty and his name also came from them. As soon as he reached the age of fifteen, he left the hills of his homeland.

When he had departed from Ida, the mountain that had nurtured him, he took delight in wandering over unknown lands and in seeing unknown rivers; his zeal made the hardships easy. Then he came to the cities of the Lycians and their neighbors the Carians. There he saw a pool of water that was clear to the very bottom with no marsh reeds, barren sedge, or sharppointed rushes to be seen. The water was transparent in its clarity and the edge of the pool was surrounded by fresh turf and grass that was always green. A nymph lived here; but one who was not inclined to hunt and not in the habit of bending the bow or contending in the chase. She alone of the Naiads was unknown to swift Diana. It is told that her sisters often said to her: < < Salmacis, take up a javelin or a lovely painted quiver; vary the routine of your idleness with the strenuous exercise of the hunt." She did not take up the javelin or the lovely painted quiver and did not vary the routine of her idleness with the strenuous exercise of the hunt. Instead she would only bathe her beautiful limbs in her fountain and often comb out her hair with a comb of boxwood and look into the water to see what suited her best; and then she would clothe her body in a transparent garment and recline on the soft leaves or the soft grass. Often she picked flowers. She was picking flowers as it happened when she saw the boy Hermaphroditus. As soon as she saw him she desired to have him. Although she was anxious to hasten to him she did not approach until she had composed herself, arranged her garment, and assumed a beautiful countenance. When she looked as attractive as she ought, she began to speak as follows: "Lovely boy, most worthy to be believed a god; if you are a god, you could be Cupid; if a mortal, blessed are your parents, and happy your brother and fortunate indeed your sister, if you have one, and the nurse who gave you her breast. But by far the most blessed of all is your betrothed, if she exists, whom you will consider worthy of marriage. If you have such a beloved, let my passion be satisfied in secret but if you do not, let me be the one and let us go together to our marriage bed." With this the nymph was silent. A blush flared up in the boy's face, for he did not know what love was. But the flush of red was becoming; his was the color of apples hanging in a sunny orchard or of tinted marble or of the moon, a reddish glow suffusing its whiteness when bronze resounds with vain attempts to help in its eclipse. To the nymph, as she demanded without end at least the kisses of a sister and brought her hand to touch his ivory neck, he exclaimed: "Are you going to stop or am I to flee and leave you and your abode?" Salmacis was frightened and replied: "I give over to you free access to this place, my guest and friend." She turned her step away and pretended to depart, though still with a glance back. She concealed herself in a hidden grove of bushes, dropping on bended knees. But he moved on the deserted grass from one spot to another, confident that he was not being watched and gradually dipped his feet as far as the ankles in the playful waves.

Taken by the feel of the captivating waters, with no delay he threw off the soft clothes from his body. Then to be sure Salmacis was transfixed, enflamed with desire for his naked form. Her eyes too were ablaze just as if the radiant orb of the glowing sun were reflected in their mirror. With difficulty she endured the agony of waiting, with difficulty she held off the attainment of her joy. Now she longed to embrace him, now in her frenzy she could hardly contain herself. He swiftly struck his hollow palms against his sides and plunged into the pool and as he moved one arm and then the other he glistened in the limpid water like an ivory statue or a lily that one has encased within clear glass. The nymph cried out: "I have won, he is mine!" And she flung off all her clothes and threw herself into the middle of the waves. She held him as he fought and snatched kisses as he struggled; she grasped him with her hands and touched his chest and now from this side and now from that enveloped the youth. Finally she encircled him as he-strove against her in his desire to escape, like a serpent which the king of birds has seized and carried aloft, and which as it hangs binds the eagle's head and feet and with its tail enfolds the spreading wings, even as ivy is wont to weave around tall trunks of trees or as the octopus grabs and holds fast its enemy in the deep with tentacles let loose on every side. Hermaphroditus, the descendant of Atlas, endured and denied the nymph the joys that she had hoped for. She continued her efforts and her whole body clung to him as though they were glued together. She cried: "You may fight, cruel villain, but you will not escape. May the gods so ordain and may we never be separated in future time, you from me nor me from YOU." The gods accepted her prayer. For their two bodies were joined together as they entwined and in appearance they were made one, just as when one grafts branches on a tree and sees them unite in their growth and become mature together; thus, when their limbs united in their close embrace, they were no longer two but a single form that could not be called girl or boy and appeared at the same time neither one, but both. And so, when he saw that the limpid waters into which he had gone as a man had made him half a man and in them his limbs had become enfeebled, Hermaphroditus stretched out his hands and prayed in a voice that was no longer masculine: "Father and mother, grant this gift to your son who bears both your names. Let whatever man who enters this pool come out half a man and let him suddenly become soft when touched by its waves." Both parents were moved and granted the wish of their child, who was now of a double nature, and they tainted the waters with this foul power. Statues of Hermaphroditus and hermaphrodites became common in the fourth century and in the following Hellenistic period, when Greek masters strove to vary their repertoires with fascinating and brilliantly executed studies in the realistic, erotic, and bizarre.