immediately after he was born，hermes was appointed godof thieves at olympus．and a thief he became when he was barely a few hours old．feeling hungry，the infant left his cradle after nightfall to hunt for food．he chanced uponapollo''s oxen grazing on a meadow and drove a number ofthese animals away，tying tree branches around the feet of thecattle to make their footsteps dim．he killed two of these oxenand had a magnificent dinner．then he slipped back into his littlebed in his mother''s house．when apollo came to question himhermes pretended to be innocent．the angry sungod draggedhim up to olympus，where he was accused of the stealing andmade to return the cattle to their master．in reconciliation little hermes gave apollo the lyre he had made out of a tortoise shell，and apollo was so pleased with the gift that he presented his little brother with a magic stick．the stick could pacify hostileforces．

in due time hermes was appointed messenger of zeus andthe gods．the gods equipped him with a pair of winged sandalsand winged cap to enable him to travel swifter than sight．it was hermes who took the messages of zeus to the world below．

hermes was a patron of travellers．his busts and statueswere set up as dividing marks at crossroads or street corners toguide passersby．the hermes，as these statues were called，were regarded as sacred，and their mutilation was sacrilegiousand punishable by death．the destruction of the numerous hermes within the city of athens caused a terrible excitement amongits citizens that it might be no exaggeration to state that itchanged the whole course of historic development of athens ．

海爾墨斯

海爾墨斯一生下來就被任命為奧林波斯山的賊神。他出生后幾個小時的時候就做了賊。黃昏時分，他感到饑餓，于是還是嬰孩的海爾墨斯離開了他的搖籃去找食物吃。他碰巧看見阿波羅的牛在草地里吃草，于是他偷走了許多牛，并將樹枝綁在牛腳上，讓腳印變得模糊不清。他殺了其中兩頭牛，美餐了一頓。然后悄然地回到他媽媽的房里，爬上床。當阿波羅發現牛少了，來質問他時，海爾墨斯佯作不知。憤怒不已的太陽神把他拖到奧林波斯山上，告他偷竊并責令將牛如數還給主人。為了平息這件事，小海爾墨斯將他用烏龜殼做的琴送給阿波羅。阿波羅得到這件禮物非常高興，并送給他的小兄弟一支魔棍，這支魔棍可以化解敵對力量。

到了一定的時候，海爾墨斯被指定為宙斯和眾神的傳令官。眾神賜他一雙帶翅膀的草鞋和一頂帶翅膀的帽子，讓他可以行動神速。海爾墨斯成了宙斯和凡世之間傳遞消息的人。

海爾墨斯是行人的保護神。十字路口或街角都有他的半身像和雕像。并作為獨特的標記，看護著每一個過往的人。這些雕像也用海爾墨斯的名字命名，并被視為神圣不可侵犯的。任何毀壞雕像的行為都被認為是褻瀆神靈，要被處以極刑。一次在雅典城，海爾墨斯的像遭到大量破壞。這一搗毀神像的行為在國民中引起了強烈的反響。毫不夸張地說，它改變了雅典歷史發展的全部進程。