The Myth of Hermes | From Stealing Cattle on the Day He Was Born to Helping Odysseus Twice

A newborn baby slips out of its cradle and, within a single day, steals fifty cattle belonging to someone else—and even manages to make peace with the very person he stole them from. That baby is Hermes. Born of Zeus and Maia, this god appears in the Homeric Hymns as a mischievous infant, and in the Odyssey, quite the opposite, as a prudent messenger and helper.

What Happened on a Day Not Even One Day Old

Book 4 of the Homeric Hymns begins the story from the very day Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Born the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, instead of lying quietly in his cradle, he crawled out to the cave entrance within that same day.

There he found a tortoise and promptly killed it, leaving only the shell. He stretched oxhide over it, inserted reed stalks, and strung the strings with sheep gut, creating on the spot an instrument the world had never seen: the lyre. As soon as he made it, he is said to have improvised and sung a song about his own parents and his birth.

The reason this scene stands out is not mere showing-off of talent. On the day he was born, before anyone knew of him, he had already shown himself to be a being who makes tools and composes songs—and this lyre becomes the central object of the events that follow.

Fifty Cattle Driven Away with Footprints Reversed

That same day, Hermes headed straight for Pieria and stole fifty of Apollo's cattle. He didn't simply drive them off—he made the cattle's footprints point backwards, and he himself wore shoes woven from myrtle and tamarisk branches so that his own tracks were erased. It was a calculated act to throw off pursuit.

Having driven the herd as far as the Alpheus River, he invented the fire drill for the first time and kindled a fire. He then sacrificed two of the cattle as offerings to the twelve gods, yet despite being hungry, he did not touch the meat himself. When the deed was done, he slipped out through the keyhole as quietly as an autumn breeze and was back in his cradle, lying down, before dawn.

He succeeded in hiding the stolen cattle, but this choice soon carried a price. It was only a matter of time before Apollo noticed his missing herd.

Playing Innocent Before Apollo

Realizing his cattle had been stolen, Apollo followed the traces and eventually arrived at the cave where Hermes was. Even seeing a swaddled newborn lying in its cradle, Apollo was convinced he was the culprit and pressed him.

Hermes answered coolly and brazenly: he had never seen them, never heard of them, and no one had ever told him such a story. He added that his feet were not strong enough to walk that far, and even retorted—could a newborn really steal cattle?

When an angry Apollo tried to bind him with willow branches, astonishingly, those branches grew on their own and covered the cattle instead. This moment reveals that force does not work on this opponent.

A Reconciliation Settled with a Single Lyre, and a New Position Gained

When physical force proved a dead end, Hermes instead took out the lyre he had made that very morning and played it. Enchanted by the sound, Apollo forgot the anger he had felt just moments before.

The two gods exchanged objects there. Hermes handed the lyre over to Apollo, and in return Apollo gave him a gleaming staff and seated him in the position of keeper of the herds. On top of this, Apollo gifted him a golden wand with three branches and told him of the three prophetic sisters (the Thriae), while keeping true prophetic power for himself. The two swore friendship to each other on the spot.

After this reconciliation, Hermes's domain expanded greatly. Zeus granted him authority over birds and lions, boars and dogs, and all manner of herds, and Hermes later made a reed pipe (the syrinx) for himself as well. In a single day, the mischievous cattle thief had established himself as messenger and guardian of livestock, and as the god who protects commerce and travelers.

Odyssey Book 5: Delivering Zeus's Command to Calypso

Unlike his trickster image in the Hymns, Hermes appears in Homer's epic the Odyssey with a completely different face. In Book 5, Zeus instructs him to go to the nymph Calypso and deliver the decision: "Send poor Odysseus home at last."

Having received the command, Hermes put on his golden sandals, which let him fly over land and sea like the wind, and, carrying the wand that can lull human eyes to sleep or wake them, he skimmed across the sea like a cormorant. Calypso welcomed him warmly and asked why he had come after so long, but upon hearing what followed, her expression changed at once.

Having heard Zeus's decision, Calypso flew into a rage. The gods, she said, resent nothing so much as goddesses loving mortals—citing how the goddess of dawn loved Orion and ultimately lost him, and how Demeter loved Iasion only to lose him to Zeus's thunderbolt. She had merely taken in Odysseus, shipwrecked and washed ashore alone, she protested, voicing her sense of injustice.

Hermes did not back down here, but clearly warned of the consequences that would follow if the command were defied. In the end, Calypso reluctantly bowed to the decision, and later promised Odysseus that she herself would send him off, providing a raft, provisions, and even a fair wind. What Hermes did in this scene was not persuasion, but delivering the gods' decision exactly as it was and seeing it enforced.

Odyssey Book 10: A Stranger Met Before Circe's House

Hermes appears before Odysseus once again in Book 10. The stage this time is the forest path leading to the mansion of the sorceress Circe. Hermes, disguised as a young man whose beard was just beginning to grow, blocked Odysseus's way.

He first told him the situation: Odysseus's men had already fallen into Circe's hands and were penned in a pigsty, transformed into swine. But only their bodies had changed—their minds remained intact, so the men fully remembered what had become of them.

Hermes then handed him an herb with a black root and a flower white as milk. The gods call this plant moly, he explained—it cannot be dug up by human hands, but for a god nothing is impossible. Then he gave specific instructions: when Circe waved her wand and tried to cast her spell, do not flinch—draw your sword and rush at her as if to kill her.

He did not stop there, but also urged Odysseus to make her swear an oath that she would harm him no further. Without that oath, he warned, if Odysseus let down his guard, she would strip him naked and reduce him to a worthless, broken state. Having eaten the moly and acted on these instructions, Odysseus, unlike his men, was ultimately able to withstand Circe's magic and stand against her.

Why Neither His Siblings Nor His Children Can Be Pinned Down to One

Because Hermes is a son of Zeus, he can be grouped as a half-brother to Zeus's other children, including Apollo. Looking at classical dictionaries, however, this matter is not as simple as one might think. Since Hermes's roles were so varied, some of the ancients believed there were actually several gods bearing the name Hermes. Cicero distinguished five, and Servius recorded four.

The situation with his children is similar. The stories of Hermes's descendants branch so widely that each is treated separately, and no single list has hardened into a canonical version. So when discussing Hermes's genealogy, it is more accurate to keep in mind that multiple traditions exist side by side, rather than one fixed family tree.

Figures Leading into the Next Stories

The story of the sorceress Circe, whom Hermes helped with moly, can be found further in the Circe myth overview. The Calypso myth overview, about the one who received Zeus's command and ultimately let Odysseus go, can also be read next.

What kind of god his father Zeus, the starting point of all these stories, is can be found in the Zeus myth, and the story of Apollo, the one whose cattle were stolen and who was reconciled with a single lyre, continues in the Apollo myth.