Listed 11 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "KYLLINI Mountain CORINTHIA" .
KYLLINI (Mountain) CORINTHIA
Son of Zeus by Maia, born on Mount Cyllene, on the top of which there was a temple dedicated to Cyllenian Hermes. He is the messenger of the gods, like Iris (Il. 24.347, Od. 5.28), and the conductor of souls to Hades (Od. 24.1).
Hermes (dor. Hermas). The son of Zeus and of the Naiad Maia,
daughter of Atlas. Immediately after his birth upon the Arcadian mountain of Cyllene,
he gave proof of his chief characteristics--inventiveness and versatility, united
with fascination, trickery, and cunning. Born in the morning, by mid-day he had
invented the lyre; in the evening he stole fifty head of cattle from his brother
Apollo, which he hid so skilfully in a cave that they could not be found. After
these exploits he lay down quietly in his cradle. Apollo, by means of his prophetic
power, discovered the thief and took the offender to Zeus, who ordered the cattle
to be given up. Hermes, however, so delighted his brother by his playing on the
lyre that, in exchange for it, he allowed him to keep the cattle, resigned to
him the golden staff of fortune and of riches, with the gift of prophecy in its
humbler forms, and from that time forth became his best friend. Zeus made his
son herald to the gods and the guide of the dead in Hades. In this myth are contained
allusions to several attributes of the god.
In many districts of Greece, and especially in Arcadia, the
old seat of his worship, Hermes was regarded as a god who bestowed the blessing
of fertility on the pastures and herds, and who was happiest when spending his
time among shepherds and dallying with Nymphs, by whom he had numberless children,
including Pan and Daphnis. In many places he was considered the god of crops,
and also as the god of mining and of digging for buried treasure. His kindliness
to man is also shown in his being the god of roads. At cross-roads in particular,
there were raised in his honour, and called by his name, not only heaps of stones,
to which every passer-by added a stone, but also the quadrangular pillars known
as Hermae. At Athens these last were set up in the streets and open spaces, and
also before the doors. Every unexpected find on the road was called a gift of
Hermes (hermaion). Together with Athene, he escorted and protected heroes in perilous
enterprises, and gave them prudent counsels. He took special delight in men's
dealings with one another, in exchange and barter, in buying and selling; and
in all that is won by craft or by theft. Thus he was the patron of tradespeople
and thieves, and was himself the father of Autolycus, the greatest of all thieves.
He, too, it was who endowed Pandora, the first woman, with the faculty of lying,
and with flattering discourse and a crafty spirit. On account of his nimbleness
and activity he was the messenger of Zeus, and knew how to carry out his father's
commands with adroitness and cunning, as in the slaying of Argos (the guard of
Io), from which he derived his epithet of Argos-slayer (Argeiphontes). Again,
as Hermes was the sacrificial herald of the gods, it was an important part of
the duty of heralds to assist at sacrifices. It was on this account that the priestly
race of the Kerukes claimed him as the head of their family. Strength of voice
and excellence of memory were supposed to be derived from him in his capacity
of herald. Owing to his vigour, dexterity, and personal charm, he was deemed the
god of gymnastic skill, which makes men strong and handsome, and the especial
patron of boxing, running, and throwing the discus; in this capacity the palaestrae
and gymnasia were sacred to him, and particular feasts called Hermaea were dedicated
to him. He was the discoverer of music (for besides the lyre he invented the shepherd's
pipe), and he was also the god of wise and clever discourse. A later age made
him even the inventor of letters, figures, mathematics, and astronomy. He was,
besides, the god of sleep and of dreams; with one touch of his staff he could
close or open the eyes of mortals; hence the custom, before going to sleep, of
offering him the last libation. As he was the guide of the living on their way,
so he was also the conductor of the souls of the dead in the nether-world (psuchopompos),
and was as much loved by the gods of those regions as by those above. For this
reason sacrifices were offered to him in the event of deaths, Hermae were placed
on the graves, and, at oracles and incantations of the dead, he was honoured as
belonging to the lower world; in general, he was accounted the intermediary between
the upper and lower worlds. His worship early spread throughout the whole of Greece.
As he was born in the fourth month, the number four was sacred to him. In Argos
the fourth month was named after him, and in Athens he was honoured with sacrifices
on the fourth of every month. His altars and images (mostly simple Hermae) were
in all the streets, thoroughfares, and open spaces, and also at the entrance of
the palaestra.
In art he is represented in the widely varying characters which
he assumed, as a shepherd with a single animal from his flock, as a mischievous
little thief, as the god of gain with a purse in his hand, with a strigil as patron
of the gymnasia, at other times with a lyre, but oftenest of all as the messenger
of the gods. He was portrayed by the greatest sculptors, such as Phidias, Polyclitus,
Scopas, and Praxiteles, whose Hermes with the infant Dionysus was discovered in
1877, in the temple of Here, at Olympia. It is mentioned by Pausanias, and is
described by Treu in his Hermes mit dem Dionysosknaben (Berlin, 1878). In the
older works of art he appears as a bearded man; in the later ones, he is found
in a graceful and charming attitude, as a slim youth with tranquil features, indicative
of intellect and good-will. His usual attributes are wings on his golden sandals
(pedila), and a flat, broad-brimmed hat, which in later times was ornamented with
wings, as was also his staff. This last (rhabdos, kerukeion, caduceus) was originally
an enchanter's wand, a symbol of power that produces wealth and prosperity, and
also an emblem of influence over the living and the dead, yet even in early times
it was regarded as a herald's staff and an emblem of peaceful intercourse. It
consisted of three shoots, one of which formed the handle, the other two being
intertwined at the top in a knot. The place of the latter was afterwards taken
by serpents; and thus arose our ordinary type of herald's staff. By the Romans,
Hermes was identified with Mercurius. For examples of the myths of Hermes in English
literature, see Shelley's Homeric Hymn to Mercury, and Keats's Ode to Maia, with
some fine passages in the Prometheus Bound of the former poet.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hermes (Hermeias, Dor. Hermas), a son of Zeus and Maia, the daughter of Atlas,
was born in a cave of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia (Hom. Od. viii. 335, xiv. 435,
xxiv. 1; Hymn. in Merc. 1; Ov. Met. i. 682, xiv. 291), whence he is called Atlantiades
or Cyllenius; but Philostratus (Icon. i. 26) places his birth in Olympus. In the
first hours after his birth, he escaped from his cradle, went to Pieria, and carried
off some of the oxen of Apollo (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 17). In the Iliad and Odyssey
this tradition is not mentioned, though Hermes is characterised as a cunning thief
(Il. v. 390, xxiv. 24). Other accounts, again, refer the theft of the oxen to
a more advanced period of the life of the god (Apollod. iii.10.2; Anton. Lib.
23). In order not to be discovered by the traces of his footsteps, Hermes put
on sandals, and drove the oxen to Pylos, where he killed two, and concealed the
rest in a cave (Comp. the different stratagems by which he escaped in Horn. Hymn.
in Merc. 75, and Anton. Lib. l. c.). The skins of the slaughtered animals were
nailed to a rock, and part of their flesh was prepared and consumed, and the rest
burnt; at the same time he offered scrifices to the twelve gods, whence he is
probably called the inventor of divine worship and sacrifices (Hom. Hymn. in Merc.
125; Diod. i. 16). Hereupon he returned to Cyllene, where he found a tortoise
at the entrance of his native cave. He took the animal's shell, drew strings across
it, and thus invented the lyre and plectrum. The number of strings of his new
invention is said by some to have been three and by others seven, and they were
made of the guts either of oxen or of sheep (Hom. l. c. 51; Diod. i. 16, v. 75;
Orph. Argon. 381; Horat. Carm. i. 10. 6). Apollo, by his prophetic power, had
in the meantime discovered the thief, and went to Cyllene to charge him with it
before his mother Maia. She showed to the god the child in its cradle; but Apollo
took the boy before Zeus, and demanded back his oxen. Zeus commanded him to comply
with the demand of Apollo, but Hermes denied that he had stolen the cattle. As,
however, he saw that his assertions were not believed, he conducted Apollo to
Pylos, and restored to him his oxen; but when Apollo heard the sounds of the lyre,
he was so charmed that he allowed Hermes to keep the animals. Hermes now invented
the syrinx, and after having disclosed his inventions to Apollo, the two gods
concluded an intimate friendship with each other (Hom. l.c. 514). Apollo presented
his young friend with his own golden shepherd's staff, taught him the art of prophesying
by means of dice, and Zeus made him his own herald, and also of the gods of the
lower world. According to the Homeric hymn (533), Apollo refused to teach Hermes
the art of prophecy, and referred him for it to the three sisters dwelling on
Parnassus; but he conferred upon him the office of protecting flocks and pastures
(568; comp. Lucian, Dial. Deor. 7; Ov. Met. ii. 683).
The principal feature in the traditions about Hermes consists in his
being the herald of the gods, and in this capacity he appears even in the Homeric
poems; his original character of an ancient Pelasgian, or Arcadian divinity of
nature, gradually disappeared in the legends. As the herald of the gods, he is
the god of skill in the use of speech and of eloquence in general, for the heralds
are the public speakers in the assemblies and on other occasions (Il. i. 333,
iv. 193, vii. 279, 385, viii. 517, xi. 684; comp. Orph. Hymn. 27. 4; Aelian, H.
A. x. 29; Hor. Carm. i. 10. 1). As an adroit speaker, he was especially employed
as messenger, when eloquence was required to attain the desired object (Od. i.
38, Il. xxiv. 390; Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 335). Hence the tongues of sacrificial animals
were offered to him (Aristoph. Pax, 1062; Athen. i). As heralds and messengers
are usually men of prudence and circumspection, Hermes was also the god of prudence
and skill in all the relations of social intercourse (Il. xx. 35, xxiv. 282, Od.
ii. 38). These qualities were combined with similar ones, such as cunning both
in words and actions, and even fraud, perjury, and the inclination to steal; but
acts of this kind were committed by Hermes always with a certain skill, dexterity,
and even gracefulness. Examples occur in the Homeric hymn on Hermes (66, 260,
383; comp. Eustath. ad Hom.; Hom. Il. v. 390, xxiv. 24; Apollod. i. 6.3).
Being endowed with this shrewdness and sagacity, he was regarded as
the author of a variety of inventions, and, besides the lyre and syrinx, he is
said to have invented the alphabet, numbers, astronomy, music, the art of fighting,
gymnastics, the cultivation of the olive tree, measures, weights, and many other
things (Plut. Sympos. ix. 3; Diod. l.c. and v. 75; Hygin. Fab. 277). The powers
which he possessed himself he conferred upon those mortals and heroes who enjoyed
his favour, and all who had them were under his especial protection, or are called
his sons (Od. x. 277, xv. 318, xix. 397; Soph. Philoct. 133; Hes. Op. 67; Eustath.
ad Hom.). He was employed by the gods and more especially by Zeus on a variety
of occasions which are recorded in ancient story. Thus he conducted Priam to Achilles
to fetch the body of Hector (Il. xxiv. 336), tied Ixion to the wheel (Hygin. Fab.
62), conducted Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena to Paris (Hygin. Fab. 92; Paus. v.
19.1), fastened Prometheus to Mount Caucasus (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42), rescued
Dionysus after his birth from the flames, or received him from the hands of Zeus
to carry him to Athamas (Apollod. iii. 4.3; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1137), sold Heracles
to Omphale (Apollod. ii. 6.3), and was ordered by Zeus to carry off Io, who was
metamorphosed into a cow, and guarded by Argus; but being betrayed by Hierax,
he slew Argus (Apollod. ii. 1.3.) From this murder he is very commonly called
Argeiphontes (Il. xxiv. 182; comp. Schol. ad Aeschyl. Prom. 563; Ov. Met. i. 670).
In the Trojan war Hermes was on the side of the Greeks (Il. xx. 72). His ministry
to Zeus is not confined to the offices of herald and messenger, but he is also
the charioteer and cupbearer (Hom. Od. i. 143, Il. xxiv. 178, 440, Hymn. in Cer.
380; Eustath. ad Hom.). As dreams are sent by Zeus, Hermes, the hegetor oneiron,
conducts them to man, and hence he is also described as the god who had it in
his power to send refreshing sleep or to take it away (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 14,
Il. ii. 26, xxiv. 343). Another important function of Hermes was to conduct the
shades of the dead from the upper into the lower world, whence he is called psuchopompos,
nekropomtos, psuchagogos, &c. (Hom. Od. xxiv. 1, 9, Hymn. in Cer. 379; Eustath.
ad Hom.; Diog. Laert. viii. 31; Hygin. Fab. 251).
The idea of his being the herald and messenger of the gods, of his
travelling from place to place and concluding treaties, necessarily implied the
notion that he was the promoter of social intercourse and of commerce among men,
and that he was friendly towards man (Od. xix. 135, Il. xxiv. 333). In this capacity
he was regarded as the maintainer of peace, and as the god of roads, who protected
travellers, and punished those who refused to assist travellers who had mistaken
their way (Il. vii. 277; Theocrit. xxv. 5; Aristoph. Plut. 1159). Hence the Athenian
generals, on setting out on an expedition, offered sacrifices to Hermas, surnamed
Hegemonius, or Agetor; and numerous statues of the god were erected on roads,
at doors and gates, from which circumstance he derived a variety of surnames and
epithets. As the god of commerce, he was called diemporos, empolaios, palinkapelos,
kerdemporos, agoraios, &c. (Aristoph. Plut. 1155; Pollux, vii. 15; Orph. Hymn.
xxvii. 6; Paus. i. 15.1, ii. 9.7, iii. 11.8, &c.); and as commerce is the source
of wealth, Hermes is also the god of gain and riches, especially of sudden and
unexpected riches, such as are acquired by commerce. As the giver of wealth and
good luck (ploutodotes), he also presided over the game of dice, and those who
played it threw an olive leaf upon the dice, and first drew this leaf (Hom. Il.
vii. 183; Aristoph. Pax, 365; Eustath. ad Hom.). We have already observed that
Hermes was considered as the inventor of sacrifices, and hence he not only acts
the part of a herald at sacrifices (Aristoph. Pax, 433), but is also the protector
of sacrificial animals, and was believed in particular to increase the fertility
of sheep (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 567, Il. xiv. 490, xvi. 180; Hes. Theog. 444). For
this reason he was especially worshipped by shepherds, and is mentioned in connection
with Pan and the Nymphs (Hom. Od. xiv. 435; Eustath. ad Hom.; Aristoph. Thesm.
977; Paus. viii. 16.1; ix. 34.2; Schol. ad Soph. Philoct. 14, 59). This feature
in the character of Hermes is a remnant of the ancient Arcadian religion, in which
he was the fertilising god of the earth, who conferred his blessings on man; and
some other traces of this character occur in the Homeric poems. (Il. xxiv. 360,
Od. viii. 335, xvi. 185, Hymn. in Merc. 27)
Another important function of Hermes was his being the patron of all
the gymnastic games of the Greeks. This idea seems to be of late origin, for in
the Homeric poems no trace of it is found; and the appearance of the god, such
as it is there described, is very different from that which we might expect in
the god of the gymnastic art. But as his images were erected in so many places,
and among them, at the entrance of the gymnasia, the natural result was, that
he, like Heracles and the Dioscuri, was regarded as the protector of youths and
gymnastic exercises and contests (Pind. Nem. x. 53), and that at a later time
the Greek artists derived their ideal of the god from the gymnasium, and represented
him as a youth whose limbs were beautifully and harmoniously developed by gymnastic
exercises. Athens seems to have been the first place in which he was worshipped
in this capacity (Pind. Pyth. ii. 10, Isthm. i. 60; Aristoph. Plut. 1161). The
numerous descendants of Hermes are treated of in separate articles. It should
be observed that the various functions of the god led some of the ancients to
assume a plurality of gods of this name. Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 22) distinguishes
five, and Servius (ad Aen. i. 301, iv. 577) four; but these numbers also include
foreign divinities, which were identified by the Greeks with their own Hermes.
The most ancient seat of his worship is Arcadia, the land of his birth,
where Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, is said to have built to him the first temple
(Hygin. Fab. 225). From thence his worship was carried to Athens, and ultimately
spread through all Greece. The festivals celebrated in his honour were called
Hermaia. His temples and statues (Dict. of Ant. s.v. Hermae) were extremely
numerous in Greece. The Romans identified him with Mercury. Among the things sacred
to him we may mention the palm tree, the tortoise, the number four, and several
kinds of fish; and the sacrifices offered to him consisted of incense, honey,
cakes, pigs, and especially lambs and young goats (Paus. vii. 22.2; Aristoph.
Plut. 1121, 1144; Hom. Od. xiv. 435, xix. 397; Athen. i. p. 16).
The principal attributes of Hermes are:
1. A travelling hat, with a broad brim, which in later times was adorned with
two little wings; the latter, however, are sometimes seen arising from his locks,
his head not being covered with the hat.
2. The staff (rhabdos or skeptron): it is frequently mentioned in the Homeric
poems as the magic staff by means of which he closes and opens the eyes of mortals,
but no mention is made of the person or god from whom he received it, nor of the
entwining serpents which appear in late works of art. According to the Homeric
hymn and Apollodorus, he received it from Apollo; and it appears that we must
distinguish two staves, which were afterwards united into one: first, the ordinary
herald's staff (Il. vii. 277, xviii. 505), and secondly, a magic staff, such as
other divinities also possessed (Lucian, Dial. Deor. vii. 5; Virg. Aen. iv. 242).
The white ribbons with which the herald's staff was originally surrounded were
changed by later artists into two serpents (Schol. ad Thuc. i. 53; Macrob. Sat.
i. 19; comp. Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 7; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 242, viii. 138), though
the ancients themselves accounted for them either by tracing them to some feat
of the god, or by regarding them as symbolical representations of prudence, life,
health, and the like. The staff, in later times, is further adorned with a pair
of wings, expressing the rapidity with which the messenger of the gods moved from
place to place.
3. The sandals (pedila.) They were beautiful and golden, and carried the god across
land and sea with the rapidity of wind; but Homer no where says or suggests that
they were provided with wings. The plastic art, on the other hand, required some
outward sign to express this quality of the god's sandals, and therefore formed
wings at his ancles, whence he is called ptenopedilos, or alipes (Orph. Hymn.
xxvii. 4; Ov. Met. xi. 312). In addition to these attributes, Hermes sometimes
holds a purse in his hands. Several representations of the god at different periods
of his life, as well as in the discharge of his different functions, have come
down to us.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agonius (Agonios), a surname or epithet of several gods. Aeschylus (Agam. 513) and Sophocles (Trach. 26) use it of Apollo and Zeus, and apparently in the sense of helpers in struggles and contests (Comp. Eustath. ad Il.). But Agonius is more especially used as a surname of Hermes, who presides over all kinds of solemn contests (Agones, Paus. v. 14.7; Pind. Olymp. vi. 133, with the Schol.)
Arcas. A surname of Hermes. (Lucan, Phars. ix. 661; Martial, ix. 34. 6)
Eriunius (Eriounios) or Erinnes, the giver of good fortune, occurs as a surname of Hermes, but is also used as a proper name instead of Hermes. (Hom. Il. xxiv. 440, 457, Od. viii. 322 ; Aristoph. Ran. 1143)
Imbrasus (Imbrasos) is, according to Eustathius (ad Hom.), identical with Imbramus, the surname of Hermes; but it occurs also as the name of three mythical personages. (Hom. Il. iv. 520; Virg. Aen. x. 123, xii. 343; Athen. vii.)
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