Hermes, on the testimony of art and literature alike, was more intimately connected with the everyday life of the Greeks than was any other of their gods. In the country his images were erected on mountains, in caves, by the side of streams, by the roadside, where they served as finger-posts, and on the marches, where they served to delimit the frontier. In towns the gate by which one entered the city and the door by which one entered a house were under the protection of an image of this deity. The streets of the city, like the roads of the country, were marked by statues of Hermes (Lat. Hermes). Inside the house as well as outside its doors the likeness of Hermes was to be found. The agora or market-place of every city was especially under the protection of this deity, and possessed a statue of him. The gymnasium and palestra also were decorated with likenesses of their patron god Hermes. Finally, in the very grave the Greek was accompanied by Hermes, the conductor of souls.
From what has been said it is obvious that the functions ascribed to Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, must have been very considerable in number and range. In the first place, he was regarded unanimously and from the beginning as the herald and messenger of Zeus, and in virtue of this character he is represented in art with the herald's staff, with wings on his feet or shoulders, and a traveller's hat of felt, low in the crown and broad in the brim, on his head. It seems natural in the next place to attribute Hermes' function as god of the training ground to the speed of foot which he as the herald of the gods was credited with. Again, Hermes was the patron of thieves, and he himself, according to the 'Hymn to Hermes,' commenced a thief's career by stealing the oxen of Apollo when he was but a few hours old. At the same early age, according to the same authority, Hermes invented the lyre, which he constructed out of the shell of a tortoise. The invention of the flute and the syrinx also was ascribed to this deity. The function of conducting the spirits of the departed to the next world, and the closely-related function of bringing dreams to mortals, probably were part of his duties as the messenger of the gods, but are of so much importance that they need separate mention. A function apparently quite unconnected with any already mentioned is that of securing fertility to flocks and herds, and generally of preserving health. We have already noticed that roads and streets in Greece were under the especial care of Hermes; we must then connect this fact with the circumstance that Hermes was the patron of travellers, merchants, and commerce generally. Finally, Hermes was the god of unexpected good-luck; what we call a godsend the Greeks called a Hermaion.
As to the origin of Hermes comparative mythologists are disagreed, though perhaps not more so in his case than in the case of other gods. He has been regarded as the god of fertilising rain, as the evening twilight or the light of dawn, as a cloud-god, as a nether-world god, and of course as a solar god. It is objected to these explanations that they only account for some and not for all of his functions. Thus, the fertilising rain would explain his function of causing fertility (were it not for the fact that it is the fertility of flocks and herds that Hermes is concerned with), and the pleasant sound of the falling rain might explain his connection with music. But the other functions find no explanation or but a forced one in this theory. It has been therefore argued (by Roscher, Hermes der Windgott) that Hermes is a wind-god. The wind is the divine messenger sent from Zeus (the sky) to man. The wind sweeps down from the mountaintops, where again the images of Hermes were placed. The swiftness of the wind is indicated by the wings on the heels or the shoulders of the god. The winds carry things away, even as the thief Hermes. The wind, like Hermes the inventor of the flute and the lyre, makes sweet music. Ghosts that are but thin air, belong to the domain of the air, and are under the dominion of the wind-god. The gentle zephyrs not only favour the growth of plants, but, according to ancient notions, conduce to the fertility of flocks and herds. The winds also blow away foul air and miasma, and the wind-god is therefore properly the god of health. The changing wind has ever been the symbol of fickle fortune and unexpected luck, and Hermes is the god of unexpected good-fortune. Travellers are especially dependent on wind and weather, and hence on Hermes. Again, various epithets which are applied to this god and have caused much trouble to scholars can be explained on this theory. Argeiphontes is the god who makes the sky clear, as does the wind. Diaktoros is the chaser. The name Hermes itself, or rather the older form Hermeias, corresponds phonetically to the Sanskrit Sarameyas, and is derived from the root sar, 'to hasten,' whence comes the epithet Saranju, applied to the Hindu Maruts, gods of the storm-wind.
That this explanation of the origin and functions of Hermes explains everything cannot be denied. Whether it is the right explanation is another matter. Apart from the fact that there are not many things for which an analogy could not be found in the action of the wind, it may be doubted, as a matter of general principle, whether we ought to look for one idea from which to deduce all the functions of a god. We may borrow an illustration from comparative syntax: no one would now think of trying to deduce all the meanings of the Greek genitive from one single central idea. In the first place, the Greek genitive conceals beneath it several cases (just as the Greek Heracles conceals several different local heroes), such as the ablative, the instrumental, &c.; and, in the next place, even the uses of the genitive proper were not as a matter of history all evolved out of one nebulous use equidistant from all subsequent uses. The extension of the meaning of a case, like the extension of the meaning of a word, is due to analogy, to its application to expressions new but analogous to those in which it was first employed. The same principle of extension by 'contiguity,' as logicians call it, in all probability explains the heterogeneous functions ascribed to any one particular god.
To seek for some notion common to them all may be as mistaken a proceeding as it would be to seek to derive the idea of the grave and the idea of horseracing from some idea equidistant between the two, because 'the turf' bears both meanings.
Finally, the beauty which characterises the statue of Hermes in the zenith of Greek art (the so-called Antinous of the Belvedere is a Hermes) naturally belongs to the patron god of the gymnasium and the palestra, while the celebrated statue of Hermes by Praxiteles portrays the god of the principle of fertility, in whose care all young things were, and to whom therefore it fell to tend his young brother Dionysus. For Hermes Trismegistus, see HERMETIC BOOKS.