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Hermes was a god of the Greek mythology, son of Zeus ands Maya, one of the 7 Pleiades
sisters and the Romans identified him with Mercury (Mercurius, in Latin).
He was represented as a young man with a sharpened and wide-brimmed beret, a golden stick in
his hands and wearing the winged sandals that make famous his image.

He was born on the Mt. Cillenes, in Arcadia and he immediately showed a great precociousness;

few hours after his birth, he get rid of his nappies, he found the carapace of a turtle and made a lyra with it, being immediately able to play it perfectly.
Then, he went in Thessalia where he stole 12 cows, 100 mares and 1 bull to Apollo who was
obliged to work as a herdsman, in that period, for the king Admetos, as a punishment for having killed with his arrows the Cyclopes, who produced the lightnings for Zeus.

Hermes lead his preys inside a cavern near Pilos, to hide them and he returned to sleep in his
comfortable cradle as if nothing had happened.
Apollo reached him very angry, sure of having identified him as the guilty thanks to his own
divination arts, but Maya (Hermes' mother) protested and claimed the innocence of her baby, not imagining his extraordinary abilities; Apollo insisted and called as a witness Zeus who ordered Hermes to give back all the stolen cattle.
But Hermes had many resources to spend and, playing his lyra, he fascinated Apollo who eventually proposed to exchange the cattle with that lyra and Hermes accepted, becoming herdsman in his turn.

Just during this new activity, he invented the flute and soon he gave it to Apollo, receiving in exchange the magic golden stick, called "caduceus" and some lessons of divination art.
Also Zeus was positively impressed by the skill proofs given by this baby and employed him as
personal messenger for himself and the hell gods ADES and PERSEPHONE.

After these early adventures, Hermes appeared only in some legends, mainly, as a secondary
figure, acting as an executor of Zeus' will.
For ex., he killed the monster Argos, who had up to 100 eyes; he led the three goddesses
HERA, ATHENA and APHRODITES on the Mt. Idas to be selected by Parides.
The latter chose Aphrodites and this had heavy consequences in the destiny of Troy, Parides'
town.
Then, Hermes found the miraculous plant that would have allowed ULYSSES to escape from the
magics performed by Circes and he took part to the GIGANTOMAKYA, during which he become
invisible wearing a magic helmet that Ades had given him.

Hermes had many sons, among which, the god PAN (half man and half goat) with the nymph
Penelopes and AUTOLICOS who was Ulysses' grandfather by his mother's side and others.

The ancient Greeks considered Hermes not only the messenger of Zeus and the infernal
divinities but also the protector of travellers, shepherds and, of course, of thieves, given his precocious exploits reported above; then, the protector of business and commerce, the inventor of the eloquence and gymnastic education, the courier of the dead in the Ades; then, he was also considered useful... against insomnia.

His cult was mainly practiced in Arcadia, in Attica (the region of Athens) and in some islands, above all, in Lemnos and Samotrakia.
Given that he was protector of travellers, in the crossroads or along the borders of land estates, there were rectangular stones with a Hermes head on their top, in most of cases, that were called "hermae".

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