He is clever, crafty, and sly—the trickster who deceives with eloquent words. He is a consort of Aphrodite, goddess of love, with whom he unites to form the hermaphrodite of al chemy. Wily and playful, he delights in his role as Trickster, bedeviling mortals and immortals alike. The son of Zeus and Maia, one of Atlas’s daughters, Hermes is a thief, a scoundrel, a guide, and a magician.
To protect homes and to ensure that Hermes facilitates access to the other gods, households placed small figurines representing Hermes, called herms, throughout the house and grounds. As communicator, messenger, and jester to the gods, Hermes shares characteristics with gods of other traditions. The Hellenistic Greeks and Romans associated Hermes most closely with t hot h, the ibis-headed god of wisdom, magic, music, medicine, surveying, drawing, and writing. Hermes, too, loved music; to apologize to Apollo for stealing his prized heifers, Hermes created the lyre as a present for the god.