luable
qualities both in buying and selling, he was also looked upon as the patron
of artifice and cunning. Indeed, so deeply was this notion rooted in the
minds of the Greek people, that he was popularly believed to be also god of
thieves, and of all persons who live by their wits.

[Illustration]

As the patron of commerce, Hermes was naturally supposed to be the promoter
of intercourse among nations; hence, he is essentially the god of
travellers, over whose safety he presided, and he severely punished those
who refused assistance to the lost or weary wayfarer. He was also guardian
of streets and roads, and his statues, called Hermae (which were pillars of
stone surmounted by a head of Hermes), were placed at cross-roads, and
frequently in streets and public squares.

Being the god of all undertakings in which gain was a feature, he was
worshipped as the giver of wealth and {119} good luck, and any unexpected
stroke of fortune was attributed to his influence. He also presided over
the game of dice, in which he is said to have been instructed by Apollo.

Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia, the eldest and most beautiful of the
seven Pleiades (daughters of Atlas), and was born in a cave of Mount
Cyllene in Arcadia. As a mere babe, he exhibited an extraordinary faculty
for cunning and dissimulation; in fact, he was a thief from his cradle,
for, not many hours after his birth, we find him creeping stealthily out of
the cave in which he was born, in order to steal some oxen belonging to his
brother Apollo, who was at this time feeding the flocks of Admetus. But he
had not proceeded very far on his expedition before he found a tortoise,
which he killed, and, stretching seven strings across the empty shell,
invented a lyre, upon which he at once began to play with exquisite skill.
When he had sufficiently amused himself with the instrument, he placed it
in his cradle, and then resumed his journey to Pieria, where the cattle of
Admetus were grazing. Arriving at sunset at his destination, he succeeded
in separating fifty oxen from his brother's herd, which he now drove before
him, taking the precaution to cover his feet with sandals made of twigs of
myrtle, in order to escape detection. But the little rogue was not
unobserved, for the theft had been witnessed by an old shepherd named
Battus, who was tending the flocks of Neleus, king of Pylos (father of
Nestor). Hermes, frightened at being discovered, bribed him with the fi