Bestiary · Messenger God / Psychopomp
Hermes
Hermes: the Greek god of trade, thieves, travelers, and boundaries. Guide of the dead. He stole Apollo's cattle on the day he was born and talked his way out of it.
Primary Sources
- Homeric Hymn to Hermes (c. 6th century BCE): birth, cattle theft, invention of the lyre
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey: guide of the dead, messenger
- Linear B tablet: e-ma-a2 (Hermes attested)
Shapeshifter
- Dantalion
- Ornias
- Amon
- Bael
- Onoskelis
- Enepsigos
- Sakhr
- Benandanti
- Krsnik
- Vještica
- Burde
- Selkie
- Jorōgumo
- Tanuki
- Eshu
- Tengu
- Māui
- Mercury
- Loki
- Hoia Baciu Forest
- Pleternica: Krauss's Village
- Vučji pastir
- La Patasola
- El Mohán
- Peri
- Agwu
- Bori Spirits (Iskoki)
- Emere
- Evus (Evu)
- /Kaggen
- Ravana
- Ngürüvilu
- Hồ Tinh
- Naga
- Iara
- Saci-Pererê
- Boto
- Curupira
- Patupaiarehe
- Aisha Qandicha
- Moura Encantada
- Teryel
- Kitsune
- Coyote
- Skinwalker / Yee Naaldlooshii
- Bastet
- Adze
- Mami Wata
- Anansi
- Pombero
- Ijirait
- Kishi
- Aswang
- Jinn
- Nekomata
- Empusa
- Lamia
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes describes the first day of his life. Born at dawn in a cave on Mount Cyllene, Hermes crawled out of his cradle by noon. He found a tortoise, killed it, stretched cowhide and strings across the shell, and invented the lyre. By evening, he had walked to Pieria, stolen fifty of Apollo’s sacred cattle, and driven them backward to a cave so the hoofprints pointed the wrong way.
The Trial
Apollo tracked down the thief and dragged the infant before Zeus. Hermes lied with perfect composure. Zeus, amused, ordered the cattle returned. Hermes offered Apollo the lyre instead. Apollo accepted. Hermes kept the cattle. The god of thieves won his first negotiation on the day he was born.
The Psychopomp
Hermes guided the dead to the underworld. In the Odyssey, he leads the suitors’ souls to Hades after Odysseus kills them. He carries the caduceus, a staff wound with two serpents, which had the power to put mortals to sleep or wake them. The boundary between sleep and death was Hermes’s territory.
Hermes Trismegistus
In Hellenistic Egypt, Hermes was identified with the Egyptian god Thoth, producing the syncretic figure Hermes Trismegistus, “Thrice-Great Hermes.” The Hermetic texts attributed to him became the foundation of Western alchemy, astrology, and occult philosophy. The phrase “as above, so below,” central to alchemical thought, comes from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The Greek god of thieves became the patron saint of the Great Work.