Hermes: (=Roman Mercury), also known as Argeiphontes (Slayer of Argos).

Attributes: the caduceus (or kerykeion = messenger's staff), winged boots, and petasos (funny-looking traveler's cap).

Iconography of Hermes:

Overview (collection of images from the Univ. of Victoria)

• Hermes sitting
• Judgement of Paris

Hermes and the cattle

Hermes 1 (vase, 530 B.C.)

Hermes 2 (statue, 520 B.C.)

Hermes 3 (vase, 520 B.C.)

Hermes or "herm" 1 (statues, 510 B.C. + Roman copy of a 5th c. herm)

Hermes or "herm" 2 (happy ones) (vase, 470 B.C.)

Hermes or "herm" 3 (sacrifice) (statues, 510 B.C.)

herma = heap of stones to mark a boundary; cf. phallic display among primates to mark boundaries

Hermes: what sort of god?

"Homeric Hymn" to Hermes: 7th/6th c. B.C.

in what sense a hymn? More than a bit irreverent, glorying in the comedy that surrounds this infant trickster (cattle rustler? or cuddling baby in all his innocence?)

trickster figure: standard folklore motif

other roles: herald; messenger; conductor of the dead (psychopompus); guardian of houses, gates, boundaries

How to make sense of this complicated god? I want to emphasize 3 points:

1. The power of the god is justified by power alone, not by moral considerations. Thievery and cunning are a potent force, for good or evil, and there MUST be a godhead behind it. Theives pray unashamedly to Hermes for success. Pagan divinity is power NOT goodness.
2. How do we put the variety of H's traits together? Hermes seems to be
• (a) the boundary marker itself (the "herm") and hence the god of boundaries;
• (b) assoc. with movements that transcend boundaries, thus his role as herald and psychopompus;
• (c) movements that transgress boundaries, thus cattle rustling and the like, and by extension thievery and cunning more generally.
3. H's relationship to Apollo: the cunning of deceit of WORDS (several exx. in the Homeric Hymn), symbolically subjoined to the supervision of a very different kind of god (Apollo) when H. gives the lyre to Apollo (more on which next time!)

More on the Interpretation of Myth

C. J. Jung (1875-1961): a student, later a rival, of Freud

Jung disagreed with his master that dreams were fundamentally informed by individual experiences, and particularly disagreed with Freud's hypothesis of the centrality of the experience of infant sexuality in the individuationof the person

Handout: "mythologem" ~ "motif" in the sense that Stith Thompson uses it, that is a recognizable folklore or mythological pattern

archetypes and the collective unconscious

myths and dreams worldwide seem to share e.g. the great mother, the paternal judge, the clever trickster, the child god. One expects of course basic human emotions like fear, desire, greed to dominate myths and dreams, but Jung found also that part. stituations and actions -- journeys, encounters with monsters -- and part. figures (great mother, etc.) were universal. He called thesearchetypes = models or patterns that seem to inhabit the minds of every human, from very primitive to very sophisticated. Archetypes spring from the collective unconscious of the entire human race: thus we can still relate to myths of birth, testing, conflict, death, and rebirth because we inherit the archetypes from our remotest ancestors (ex. of Hermes, as (a) herm, (b) trickster, (c) child god ("the child motif represents the preconscious, childhood aspect of the collective psyche"-- NOT, as Freud, as vestigial memory of our own childhood: for the archetype is always an image belonging to the whole human race and not merely to the individual; cf. ex. of Persephone/Hades). Archetypes can be symbols as well as typical figures or patterns of behavior.

animus/anima: when distorted, one can view the female as a Medusa or Fury, the male as a rapist or tyrant (Persephone and Hades)

shadow: sinister force within one that is a composite of unacknowledge negative elements like fear, hatred, envy, lust: e.g. Heracles and his uncontrolled outbursts, the raping and brutality of Zeus, Gilgamesh's uncontrolled lust (and here the "shadow" becomes a "second self" in the figure of Enkidu, etc.

Hermes and Apollo

H's relationship to Apollo: the cunning of deceit of WORDS (several exx. in the Homeric Hymn), symbolically subjoined to the supervision of a very different kind of god (Apollo) when H. gives the lyre to Apollo

Hesiod, Theogony: The Muses say, "We know how to speak much that is false but seems like the truth, and, if we like, we also know how to speak the things that are true." From the earliest period, Greeks are aware of the seductiveness, the trickery, behind music and cunning use of language. (Several exx. in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes as the baby Hermes tries to talk his way out of his predicament.)

Cunning use of language then associated with that thief and hustler, Hermes. But then Hermes hands over the lyre, and therewith the songs and poetry, to Apollo. This seems to suggest that poetry and music are put into a different world from the cattle-rustling world of Hermes, god of thieves: into the world of Apollo, a god serious, august, with direct links to Zeus and the main drive shaft of the divine machinery. Closer therefore to divine prophecy, a principal association with Apollo. Clever words then may have more than mere superficial, cunning appeal-- they have potential at least of being the voice of divine truth. The handing over of the lyre from Hermes to Apollo seems then to express, mythically, a fundamental ambiguity about language in general, and poetic language in particular.

Apollo: what do we associate with Apollo?