MYTH - HERMES
Better known for its Roman name, Mercury was the messenger of the gods. Hermes was the result of one of the great loves banned Olympic Lord, was the son of Zeus and Maia, a beautiful nymph, daughter of the Titan Atlas, and one of the Pleiades. Ivy, the ruthless wife of Zeus, launched his anger and jealousy on the nymph, causing it to flee to the mountains, where they hid in a cave of Mount Cilena to give birth. Exhausted by the leak and the labor, Maia fell asleep after the baby rolling on tracks and put it in a basket in the range of a willow, sacred tree that symbolized the fertility and immortality.
Once we saw the mother in deep sleep, the agile Hermes rid itself of the tracks and went in search of adventure. I'd like gods to show their skills to be accepted among them, proving to be worthy of his divine condition. Then decided to steal the cattle that actual Apollo, the sun god, cultivated the fields of King Admeto, in Thessaly. It took fifty reses. To cover up the tracks, dried branches tied in tails and paws of animals and hid them in a cave. Apollo, which was distracted, dating a pastor, saw nothing. When discovered the theft, asked the satyr of Sileno to seek the cattle.
Hermes killed two animals as an offering to the gods. Of the guts to fire and drought stretched the rope that was arrested in the empty shell of a tortoise. And so, showing his genius, created the lira, instrument symbol of the arts in Western culture. Then wrap again in the tracks, lie down and fell asleep in the cradle.
When Apollo understood the plot, carried Hermes to be judged before God. Zeus cleverly questioned the son, who insisted on denying their feat. After much debate, Zeus - which, in essence, has a lot of fun with the achievements of the boy - ordered Hermes to return the cattle and asked apology to Apollo. So warned that it should respect the property and promise to never lie. When that Hermes replied: "If so, make me your herald, Father (...) and will be responsible for the security of the entire property divine, no more lies rights, although they can not promise that rights always the whole truth ". Zeus sagrou Hermes the messenger of the gods, he who did the "bridges" between gods and gods, and gods and men and between men and men. It was the only one that could be down to ?nferos and return to Earth. Led the souls of the dead to the kingdom, the world of Hades, which had free access. Traveling constantly between Olympus, Earth and the inferred.
Hermes can be considered the big bachelor of Olympus. Never married and neither had a constant companion. But had many adventures and many loving children. His case was more important to love Aphrodite. This union of one night only, was born Hermaphrodite, a bisexual be represented as a young man with feminine breasts and long hair, whose genitals are male.
The legend of Hermes and his cult survived until the seventeenth century through Trimegisto Hermes, which became the world Greco-Latin and especially in Rome, a god very important. Arising out of a syncretism between the Olympic Hermes, the Mercury Roman and Egyptian Thoth, which would have created the world through the floor, Hermes Trimegisto was "three times High Hermes", as its name suggests. It remains a literary work, composed of various writings gathered under the heading of "Corpus Hermeticum", which is a fusion of Philosophy, Religion, Alchemy, Magic and especially Astrology