HERMES LOVES Ἑρμης Hermês Hermes Mercury HERMES was the great Olympian god of herds, travel, trade, heraldry, language, athletics and thievery.He had numerous lovers in myth, although most of these appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story.The most famous of his loves were the Nymph Penlopeia (mother of Pan), and the maids Herse of Athens, and Khione of Phokis. The only metamorphosis story in this genre was the obscure tale of his love for Krokos (the crocus flower), echoing that of Apollon and Hyakinthos. DIVINE LOVES APHRODITE The Goddess of Love was seduced by Hermes with the help of Zeus and a stolen sandal. She bore him a son named Hermaphroditos.
BRIMO A Goddess of the Underworld (probably Hekate), whose virginity was lost to Hermes on the banks of the Thessalian Lake Boibeis. DAEIRA An Underworld goddess who mated with Hermes and bore him a daughter (or son) named Eleusis. She may be the same as Brimo mentioned above, in which case her name is probably a title for Hekate or Persephone. PEITHO The Goddess of Persuasion whom Hermes took as his bride.
PERSEPHONE The gods Hermes, Ares, Apollon and Hephaistos all wooed Persephone before her marriage to Haides. Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the gods. SEMI-DIVINE LOVES (NYMPHAI) KARMENTIS An Arkadian (of Southern Greece) Naias Nymphe who was loved by Hermes. She bore him a son Euandros, with whom she emmigrated to Latium (in Italia). NYMPHE (UNNAMED) A Nymphe of Sikelia (Sicily, Southern Italia) who bore Hermes a son named Daphnis. [see Family] OKYRRHOE A Naias Nymphe of Teuthrania (in Asia Minor) who bore Hermes a son named Kaikos. [see Family] OREIADES, THE Nymphai of the Mountains were said to mate with Hermes in the highlands, breeding more of their kind. PENELOPEIA An (Oreias) Nymphe of Arkadia (in Southern Greece) who bore to Hermes the god Pan (or one of the Panes named Nomios). RHENE A (Naias) Nymphe of the island of Samothrake (in the Greek Aegean) who bore a son Saon to Hermes. [see Family] SOSE An Oreias Nymphe of Arkadia (in Southern Greece) and Prophetess of the god Hermes. She bore him a son the pan Agreus. TANAGRA A Naias Nymphe of Argos (in Southern Greece) for whom the gods Ares and Hermes competed in a boxing match. Hermes won and carried her off to Tanagra in Boiotia. MORTAL LOVES (WOMEN) AGLAUROS A Princess of Attika (Athens) (in Southern Greece) who bore Hermes a son, Keryx. [see Family] AKALLE A Princess of Krete (in the Greek Aegean) loved by Hermes. She bore him a son named Kydon. [see Family] ALKIDAMEA A Princess of Korinthos (in Southern Greece) who bore Hermes a son named Bounos. [see Family] ANTIANEIRA A woman of Alope in Malis (Northern Greece) who bore Hermes two sons: Ekhion and Eurytos. [see Family] APEMOSYNE A Princess of Krete (and later Rhodes) (in the Greek Aegean) who was impregnated by Hermes. When her brother discovered she was pregnant with child he kicked her to death. APTALE A woman who was the mother of Eurestos by Hermes. [see Family]
ERYTHEIA A Princess of Iberia (in Southern Spain) who bore Hermes a son Norax. [see Family] EUPOLEMIA A Princess of Phthia (in Northern Greece) who was loved by Hermes. She bore him a son Aithalides. [see Family] HERSE (aka KREUSA) A Princess of Attika (in Southern Greece) who was loved by Hermes and bore him a son Kephalos.
IPHTHIME A Princess of Doris (in Thessalia, Northern Greece) who was loved by Hermes and bore him three Satyroi - named Pherespondos, Lykos and Pronomos. KHIONE (aka PHILONIS) A Princess of Phokis (in Central Greece) who made love to two gods, Hermes and Apollon, on the same night. To Hermes she bore a son Autolykos. KHTHONOPHYLE A Queen of Sikyonia (in Southern Greece) who bore Hermes a son named Polybos. [see Family] KLYTIE A woman or nymph of Elis (Southern Greece) who was the mother of Myrtilos by Hermes. His mother is also named as Theoboule. [see Family]
LIBYE A Princess of Libya (in North Africa) or Nauplia, Argolis (in Southern Greece) who bore Hermes a son named Libys. [see Family] PENELOPE A Queen of Ithaka (in Southern Greece) and wife of Odysseus. Acording to some, she was the mother by Hermes of the god Pan (most acccounts, however, say that is was a Nymphe of the same name that bore the god). PHYLODAMEIA One of the fifty Princesses of Argos (in Southern Greece) known as the Danaides. She was loved by Hermes and bore him a son Pharis. [see Family]
POLYMELE A Lady of Phthiotis (in Northern Greece) who bore Hermes a son, Eudoros.
THEOBOULE A woman of Elis (in Southern Greece) who bore Hermes a son, Myrtilos. [see Family] THRONIA A Princess of Aigyptos (or Egypt, in North Africa) who bore Hermes a son, named Arabos. [see Family] MORTAL LOVES (MEN) AMPHION A King of Thebes in Boiotia (Southern Greece) who, according to some, was loved by Hermes. KROKOS An Arkadian boy (of Southern Greece) who was loved by Hermes. When the god accidentally killed him playing discus, he transformed the boy into a crocus flower. PERSEUS A Hero and Prince of Argos (in Southern Greece) who, according to some, was a male lover of Hermes. HERMES LOVES: APHRODITE SEDUCED IN EGYPT Pseudo-Hyginus,
"Mercurius [Hermes] stirred by Venus's [Aphrodite's] beauty, fell in love with her, and when she permitted no favours, became greatly downcast, as if in disgrace. Jove [Zeus] pitied him, and when Venus [Aphrodite] was bathing in the river Achelous he sent and eagle to take her sandal to Amythaonia of the Egyptians and give it to Mercurius [Hermes]. Venus [Aphrodite], in seeking for it, came to him who loved her, and so he, on attaining his desire, as a reward put the eagle in the sky [as the constellation Aquilla].THEIR CHILD
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 6. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :
"Hermaphroditos, as he has been called, who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite and received a name which is a combination of those of both his parents."Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 288 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"To Mercurius [Hermes], runs the tale, and Cythereia [Aphrodite] a boy was born whom in Mount Ida’s caves the Naides nurtured; in his face he showed father and mother and took his name from both. When thrice five years had passed, the youth forsook Ida, his fostering home, his mountain haunts, eager to roam strange lands afar."Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 21-23 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :"Engendered form the sea-foam, we are told she [Aphrodite] became the mother by Mercurius [Hermes] of the second Cupidus [literally Eros, but Cicero is probably referring to Hermaphroditos]."HERMES LOVES: DAEIRA / BRIMO Brimo and Daeira were possibly titles of the goddess Hekate who as a Goddess of the Underworld and of the Eleusinian Mysteries was closely associated with Hermes Guide of the Dead. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 38. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"The hero Eleusis, after whom the city is named, some assert to be a son of Hermes and of Daeira, daughter of Okeanos."Propertius, Elegies 2. 29C (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :"Brimo, who as legend tells, by the waters of Boebeis laid her virgin body at Mercurius' [Hermes'] side."HERMES LOVES: PEITHO
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 8. 220 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"If quikshoe Hermes has made merry bridal with you, if he has forgotten his own Peitho [his wife]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 230 ff :"Lord Hermes . . . entered the delicate bed of Peitho who brings marriage to pass."HERMES LOVES: PERSEPHONE Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "All that dwelt in Olympos were bewitched by this one girl [Persephone], rivals in love for the marriageable maid, and offered their dowers for an unsmirched bridal. Hermes had not yet gone to the bed of Peitho, and he offered his rod as gift to adorn her chamber [as bride-price for her hand-in-marriage, but all offers were declined by her mother Demeter]."HERMES LOVES: THE OREIADESHomeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 256 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :"The deep-breasted Mountain Nymphai [Oreades] who inhabit this great and holy mountain . . . with them the Seilenoi and the sharp-eyed Argeiphontes [Hermes] mate in the depths of pleasant caves."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 105 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"The horned Satyroi were commanded [when Rheia summoned divinities to join Dionysos in his war against the Indians] by these leaders [various Satyroi sons of the Seilenoi are named] . . . With Pherespondos walked Lykos the loudvoiced herald, and Pronomos renowned for intelligence - all sons of Hermes, when he had joined Iphthime to himself in secret union. She was the daughter of Doros, himself sprung from Zeus and a root of the race of Hellen, and Doros was ancestor whence came the Akhaian blood of the Dorian tribe. To these three, Eiraphiotes [Dionysos], entrusted the dignity of the staff of the heavenly herald, their father the source of wisdom." HERMES LOVES: KARMENTISPseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 277 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"First Inventors . . . The Greek letters Mercurius [Hermes] is said to have brought to Egypt, and from Egypt Cadmus took them to Greece. Cadmus [not Kadmos but Euandros, son of Hermes and Karmentis] in exile from Arcadia, took them to Italy, and his mother Carmenta changed them to Latin to the number of 15."HERMES LOVES: PENELOPEIA & SOSEHomeric Hymn 19 to Pan (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :"Hermes . . . came to Arkadia . . . there where his sacred place is as god of Kyllene. For there, though a god, he used to tend curly-fleeced sheep in the service of a mortal man, because there fell on him and waxed a strong melting desire to wed the rich-tressed daughter of Dryopos [Penelopeia or Sose], and there he brought about the merry marriage. And in the house she bare Hermes a dear son [the god Pan] who from his birth was marvellouse to look upon, with goat's feet and two horns - a noisy, merry-laughing child. But when the nurse saw his uncouth face and full beard, she was afraid and sprang up and fled and left the child. Then luck-bringing Hermes received him and took him in his arms: very glad in his heart was the god."Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E7. 39 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Some say that Penelope [wife of Odysseus] was seduced by Antinous [one the suitors], and returned by Odysseus to her father Ikarios, and that when she reached Mantineia in Arkadia, she bore Pan, to Hermes." [N.B. Penelope, wife of Odysseus, is confounded with Penelopeia, the Arkadian nymphe.]Herodotus, Histories 2. 153. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :"Pan is held to be the youngest of the gods . . . and Pan the son of Penelope (for according to the Greeks Penelope and Hermes were the parents of Pan) was [first worshipped in Greece] about eight hundred years before me [Herodotus], and thus of a later date than the Trojan war."Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 224 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Mortals who were made immortal . . . Pan, son of Mercurius [Hermes] and Penelope."Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 67 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"Panes, the sons of Hermes, who divided his love between two Nymphai; for one he visited the bed of Sose; for one he visited the bed of Sose, the highland prophetess, and begat a son inspired with the divine voice of prophecy, [the Pan] Agreus, well versed in the beast-slaying sport of the hunt. The other was [the Pan] Nomios, whom the pasturing sheep loved well, one practised in the shepherd's pipe, for whom Hermes sought the bed of Penelopeia the country Nymphe."HERMES LOVES: TANAGRA Corinna, Fragment 666 :
"For your [Tanagra's] sake Hermes boxed against Ares."
HERMES LOVES: APEMOSYNE LOCALE: Rhodes (Greek Aegean)Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 14 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"[Althaimenes grandson of Minos] left Krete with his sister Apemosyne and went to a certain place on Rhodes . . . Not long after that he became the murderer of his sister. For Hermes developed a passion for Apemosyne; proving unable to catch her as she ran from him (she was swifter of foot than Hermes!), he strewed some newly stripped hides along the road, on which she slipped as she was returning from the spring. He then raped her. When she disclosed to her brother what had happened, Althaimenes took her story about the god to be an excuse, and killed her with a kick of his foot."HERMES LOVES: HERSE Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 180-181 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Kekrops married Agraulos, daughter of Aktaios, and had a son Erysikhthon . . . and three daughters, Agraulos, Herse, and Pandrosos . . . Herse and Hermes had Kephalos, whom Eos developed a passion for and kidnapped. They had sex in Syria [and became ancestors of the kings of Kypros]."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 160 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Sons of Mercurius [Hermes] . . . Cephalus by Creusa [probably the same as Herse], daughter of Erechtheus."Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 552 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st
"Caducifer [Hermes] rose soaring on his wings, and in his flight looked down upon the land [of Attika] that Minerva [Athene] loves and the Munychian fields and the Lyceum's cultivated groves. It chanced that day was Pallas' festival [the Panathenaia] and virgins carried, in the accustomed way, in baskets, flower-crowned, upon their heads the sacred vessels to her hilltop shrine. As they returned the winged god saw them there and turned aside and circled overhead, like a swift kite that sees a sacrifice and, while the priests press round the victim, waits circling afraid, yet dares not go too far, and hovers round on hungry wings; so Cyllenius [Hermes] above the citadel of Actea wheeled his sweeping course in circle after circle through the air. Even as Lucifer (the morning star) more brilliant shines than all the stars, or as golden Phoebe (the Moon) outshines Lucifer (the morning star), so Herse walked among her comrades, lovelier than them all, the fairest jewel of the festival. Jove's son [Hermes], breath-taken by her loveliness, was kindled as he hovered, like a lead slung from a Balearic sling, that as it flies glows with its speed and finds below the clouds heat not its own. Swerving, he left the sky and flew to earth, and there took in disguise - such trust in his good looks! Yet though his trust was sound, he spared no pains; he smoothed his hair, arranged his robe to hang aright, to show the whole long golden hem, saw that his wand, the wand he wields to bring and banish sleep, shone with a polish, and his ankle-wings were lustrous and his sandals brushed and clean. The house possessed in a secluded wing three chambers, richly inlaid with ivory and tortoiseshell. The right was the abode of Pandrosos, Aglauros on the left and Herse in between.Aglauros first marked Mercurius' [Hermes'] approach and boldly asked the god his name and business. To her question Atlantis Pleione’s grandson answered: ‘I am he who bears his father's mandates through the sky. My father’s Juppiter [Zeus] himself. I'll not invent a reason. Only, if you'll be so good, stand by your sister and consent to be aunt to my child. For Herse’s sake I’m here; favour a lover’s hope!’She looked at him with those hard eyes that spied not long ago fair-haired Minerva's [Athena's] mystery, and asked a golden fortune for her services, and pending payment forced him from the house. The warrior goddess [Athena] turned her angry eyes upon the girl and heaved a sigh so deep that breast and aegis shuddered. She recalled it was Aglauros whose profaning hand laid bare that secret when the oath she swore was broken [for she looked into the box containing the baby Erikthonios that Athena had left in the three sister's care but forbidden them to open] and she [Aglauros] saw the infant boy [Erikhthonios], great Lemnicola's [Hephaistos'] child, the babe no mother bore; and now she would find favour with the god and with her sister too, and grow so rich with all that gold her greed had planned to gain. Straighway she [Athena] sought the filthy slimy shack were Invidia (Envy) dwelt [and summoned her to lay her curse upon the girl] . . . Tritonia [Athena] filled with loathing, forced a few curt words: ‘Inject your pestilence in one of Cecrops’ daughters; that I need; Aglauros is the one.’ . . . Into the room of Cecrops' child she [Invidia] went and did as she was bid. On the girl's breast she laid her withering hand and filled her heart with thorny briars and breathing a baleful blight deep down into her bones and spread a stream of poison, black as pitch, inside her lungs. And lest the choice of woe should stray too wide, she set before her eyes her sister's [Herse's] face, her fortune-favoured marriage and the god so glorious; and painted everything larger than life. Such thoughts were agony: Aglauros pined in private grief, distraught all night, all day, in utter misery, wasting away in slow decline, like ice marred by a fitful sun. The happiness of lucky Herse smouldered in her heart like green thorns on a fire that never flame nor give good heat but wanly burn away. Often she'd rather die than see such sights; often she meant, as if some crime, to tell the tale to her strict father.In the end she sat herself outside her sister’s door to bar Cyllenius' [Hermes'] access. With honeyed words he pressed his prayers and pleas. ‘Enough’, said she, ‘I’ll never move till you are forced away!’ ‘A bargain!’ cried the god and with his wand, his magic wand, opened the door. But she found, as she tried to rise, a numbing weight stiffened her muscles; as she strained to stand upright, her knees were stuck; an icy chill seeped through her limbs, the blood paled in her veins. And as an evil growth beyond all cure creeps far and wide and wounds what once was well, so by degrees the winter of dark death entered her heart and choked her breath and stopped the lanes of life. She did not try to speak, nor, had she tried, was way still left for words. Her throat, mouth, lips were hardened into stone; and there, a lifeless statue she remained, nor was it white, but with her dark thoughts stained. Such was punishment that Atlantiades [Hermes] death Aglauros for her wicked words and will. Then, leaving Athens, Pallas' fabled land, he made his way to heaven on beating wings."
HERMES LOVES: KHIONE Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 8. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"Autolykos, who lived on Mount Parnassos, and was said to be a son of Hermes, although his real father [the man who raised him] was Daidalion."Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 200 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Apollo and Mercurius [Hermes] are said to have slept the same night with Chione, or, as other poets say, with Philonis [an alternative name for Chione], daughter of Daedalion. By Apollo she bore Philammon, and by Mercurius [Hermes], Autolycus. Later on she spoke too haughtily against Diana [Artemis] in the hunt, and so was slain by her arrows. But the father Daedalion, because of his grief for his only daughter, was changed by Apollo into the bird daedalion, that is, the hawk."Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 201 :"Mercurius [Hermes] gave to Autolycus, whom he begot by Chione, the gift of being such a skilful thief that he could not be caught, making him able to change whatever he stole into some other form."Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 301 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"[Daidalion son of Hesperos, god of the evening-star,] had a daughter, Chione, a girl most blessed with beauty’s dower, her fourteen years ready for marriage, and her hand was sought by countless suitors. Phoebus [Apollon], as it chanced, and the son of Maia [Hermes], on their way back, the one from Delphi, the other from Cyllene's crest, both saw her, both alike caught love's hot fire.Apollo delayed till night his hopes of love; Mercurius [Hermes] would not wait and with his wand that soothes to slumber touched her on the lips; touch-tranced she lay and suffered his assault. Night strewed the sky with stars; Phoebus [Apollon] took the guise of an old woman and obtained his joys - forestalled. Her womb fulfilled its time and to the wing-foot god a wily brat was born, Autolycus, adept at tricks off every kind, well used to make black white, white black, a son who kept his father’s skill. To Phoebus there was born (for she had twins) Philammon, famed alike for song and lyre. What profit was it to have pleased two gods, produced two boys, to have a valiant father, a shining grandfather?Is glory not a curse as well? A curse indeed to many! To her for sure! She dared to set herself above Diana [Artemis], faulting her fair face. The goddess, fierce in fury, cried ‘You’ll like my actions better!’ and she bent her bow and shot her arrow, and the shaft transfixed that tongue that well deserved it [for her sacrilege]. Then that tongue was dumb, speech failed the words she tried to say: her blood and life ebbed away.
Sadly I [King Keyx, brother of Daidalion] held her, feeling in my heart her father’s grief, and gave my brother words of comfort, for he loved her - words he heard as rocks the roaring waves – and bitterly bewailed his daughter's loss. Yes, when he saw her on the pyre, four times an impulse came to rush into the flames; four times forced back, he fled away in frenzy; like an ox, its bowed neck stung by hornets, so he charged where no way was. His speed seemed even then faster than man could run, and you'd believe his feet had wings. So fleeing from us all, with death-bent speed he gained Parnassus' crest.
Apollo [and probably Hermes], pitying, when Daedalion threw himself from a cliff made him a bird, and held him on sudden hovering wings, and gave him a hooked beak, gave curving claws, with courage as of old and strength that more than matched his body's build. And now a hawk, benign to one, he vents his savagery on every bird and, as in grief he goes, ensures that others grieve and share his woes. [N.B. the hawk was a bird sacred to both Apollon and Hermes.]"HERMES LOVES: POLYMELE Homer, Iliad 16. 181 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : "The next battalion [of Akhilleus' Myrmidones] was led by warlike Eudoros, a maiden's child, born to one lovely in the dance, Polymele, daughter of Phylas; whom strong Hermes Argeiphontes loved, when he watched her with his eyes among the girls dancing in the choir for clamorous Artemis of the golden distaff. Presently gracious (akaketa) Hermes went up with her into her chamber and lay secretly with her, and she bore him a son, the shining Eudoros, a surpassing runner and a quick man in battle. But after Eileithyia of the hard pains had brought out the child into the light, and he looked on the sun's shining, Aktor's son Ekhekles in the majesty of his great power led her to his house, when he had given numberless gifts to win her, and the old man Phylas took the child and brought him up kindly and cared for him, in affection as if he had been his own son."HERMES LOVES: KROKOSHermes accidentally killed his lover Krokos in a game of discus, and transformed his body into the scarlet crocus flower. The myth is similar to that of Apollon and Hyakinthos.The story is not currently quoted here.HERMES LOVES: AMPHIONLOCALE: Thebes, Boiotia (Central Greece) Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 10 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :"My own opinion is that Hermes gave Amphion these gifts, both the [magical] lyre and the headband, because he was overcome by love for him."HERMES LOVES: PERSEUS The reference in which Perseus is described as a lover of Hermes is not currently quoted here. Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C9th-8th BC The Homeric Hymns - Greek Epic C8th-4th BC Greek Lyric I Corinna, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th BC Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th BC Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st BC
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines - Greek Art History C3rd AD Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd AD Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd AD Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st BC - C1st AD Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Latin Philosophy C1st BC Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st BC Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD
Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 - 2011, Aaron J. Atsma, New Zealand
