Hermes agreed to trade it for Apollo's golden staff?and with it, the honor of being the god of herdsmen and shepherds?as well as instruction from Apollo's old nurses in how to use pebbles to divine the future.
Equally charmed by this instrument, Apollo asked Hermes to name his terms for it. Hermes agreed, and immediately began building another musical instrument for his amusement: a reed-pipe.
Enchanted by the music?and by the song that flattered Apollo for his cleverness, nobility, and generosity?the older god offered to exchange the entire herd of cattle for the younger god's lyre. While Apollo gathered his herd together, Hermes began playing on his new lyre. Reportedly, this was the very first sacrifice of flesh to the gods. ?Me, of course,? acknowledged the not-so-humble but lovable Hermes. Raising an eyebrow, Apollo asked who the twelfth god was. When Apollo spotted the two slaughtered cows, Hermes explained that he had divided the meat into 12 equal portions for the gods.
Though he found his son's devilishness amusing, Zeus prompted Hermes to confess and lead Apollo to the herd. He may have protested too much, however, when he claimed he didn't even know what a cow was.Īpollo, disbelieving the scamp, carried Hermes before Zeus and charged him with theft. The boy god feigned innocence, swearing by his father's head that he had not stolen the cows. An omen led him to the cave where he found Hermes. Meanwhile, Apollo searched throughout the world, but could not find his cows. His mother warned him that the gods would be angry at his pranks. Despite his attempted deception, Hermes did not fool Maia. After hiding the cows, Hermes returned home, slipped through the keyhole, again put on his swaddling clothes, and lay down to sleep. Once again he demonstrated his wiliness, burning the hooves and heads to leave no trace of his actions. Battus quickly sold him out, telling him what he knew, so Hermes punished the old man by turning him to stone.Īt the river Alpheus, Hermes stopped to sacrifice two of the cows. So he disguised himself and returned, offering a reward for any news of the stolen cattle. Hermes bought the old man's silence, but the young god doubted whether he could trust the stranger. While driving the cattle, he came across an old man named Battus. To make it even harder to track him, he confused the herd's trail by driving the cows backward and traversing sandy places that left no prints. He disguised his tracks by cobbling together ?shoes? made of bark from a fallen oak tree. Though he had been in the world less than a day, Hermes already had a cunning mind. When he found himself in the pastures of the gods, Hermes impulsively stole 50 cows from Apollo, then still the herdsman of the gods. That same day, the baby Hermes slipped out of his mother's sight and went searching for adventure. He then quickly taught himself how to play. Within hours of birth, he had wandered out of his cave, killed a tortoise, and stretched seven strings of sheep gut across it to build the first lyre. Nursed by the nymph Cyllene, the precocious young boy grew incredibly fast. The son of Zeus and Maia (a daughter of the Titan Atlas), Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia in southern Greece. For Hermes, a friendly, likable young god, became the patron not only of travelers and merchants, but of thieves and rogues as well. The herald and messenger of the gods, Hermes was like a breath of fresh air on Mount Olympus. Night of the Hunters: Artemis and Apollo.Three's a Crowd: The Olympian Love Triangle.
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