The relationship between Hermes and other Greek deities

A priest in ancient Olympia once sacrificed a bull to Zeus, then whispered a prayer to Hermes before he walked away. The bull belonged to the king of gods. The prayer belonged to the one who would carry it there. The relationship between Hermes and other Greek deities was not a matter of equal standing but of function: Hermes moved between them, spoke for them, and often outwitted them, occupying a role no other god could fill.

The Greek pantheon did not work without Hermes. He was the connective tissue between Olympus and the underworld, between gods and mortals, between one god and another who had no reason to speak. Understanding his relationships means understanding how the entire system held together.

What Made Hermes Different From Every Other Olympian

Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. Within hours of his birth, according to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (composed around the 6th century BCE), he invented the lyre from a tortoise shell, stole fifty of Apollo’s cattle, and returned to his cradle before dawn. That single day defined every relationship he would ever have.

No other Olympian began with theft and invention as their origin story. Hermes was not a god of a single domain like Ares (war) or Hestia (hearth). He was a god of boundaries, transitions, trickery, trade, language, and travel. This made him useful to everyone and fully trusted by no one. The Greeks called him psychopompos (soul-guide) because he escorted the dead to Hades, and dolios (crafty) because he lied as naturally as he breathed.

His relationships with other gods were shaped by this dual nature: he was the one who could cross lines, but he was also the one who drew them.

How Hermes Served as Zeus’s Right Hand

Zeus trusted Hermes more than any other god, which is not the same as liking him. The Iliad (Book 24, circa 8th century BCE) shows Hermes escorting King Priam through the Greek camp to retrieve Hector’s body. Zeus gave the order, and Hermes made the impossible journey possible by shrouding Priam in invisibility and guiding him past sentries.

This was Hermes’s primary function for Zeus: the fixer. When Zeus needed a message delivered, a soul escorted, a boundary crossed without violence, he sent Hermes. When he needed something stolen or concealed, Hermes was the natural choice. The Homeric Hymn describes Zeus laughing at the infant Hermes’s theft of Apollo’s cattle, amused rather than angry, because the boy reminded him of himself.

But the relationship was not sentimental. Zeus kept Hermes close because Hermes was too dangerous to leave unsupervised. A god who could steal from Apollo, lie to his face, and then charm him into friendship was a god who needed a direct leash. Zeus provided it, and Hermes accepted it because the alternative was exile.

The Unlikely Friendship Between Hermes and Apollo

The theft of the cattle should have made Apollo an enemy for eternity. Instead, it made him a brother. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes records the resolution: Apollo dragged Hermes before Zeus, demanding justice. Hermes denied everything with such convincing innocence that Zeus laughed and told them to settle it themselves.

Apollo, frustrated, searched Hermes’s cradle and found the cattle hides. But Hermes, sitting in his cradle, picked up the lyre he had invented and began to play. The music was unlike anything Apollo had ever heard. He offered to trade the entire herd of cattle for the lyre. Hermes agreed, and the two became the closest of allies.

From that moment, Apollo and Hermes shared a bond that no other Olympian pair had. Apollo gave Hermes the golden staff that would become his caduceus, and Hermes gave Apollo the instrument that became his signature. They were the two gods of the arts: Apollo of prophecy and music, Hermes of language and invention. In later Orphic tradition (circa 5th century BCE), some texts even merged them into a single figure, Hermes Apollo, representing the unity of eloquence and truth.

Why Hades Needed Hermes More Than Any Other God

Hades ruled the underworld, but he could not leave it. The dead needed a guide, and Hades needed a representative in the world above. Hermes filled both roles.

As psychopompos, Hermes escorted souls from the moment of death to the banks of the Styx, where Charon ferried them across. The Odyssey (Book 24) describes Hermes leading the souls of the slain suitors “squeaking like bats” into the underworld. He was not a judge of the dead like Minos or Rhadamanthys. He was a courier, and his job ended at the gate.

But Hermes also retrieved souls when needed. When Persephone was allowed to return to the surface for half the year, Hermes was the one who escorted her up. When Orpheus begged for Eurydice back, Hermes led her out of the underworld and, when Orpheus turned around, led her back. He was the only god who could move freely between the living and the dead, which made him indispensable to Hades.

The relationship was professional, not warm. Hades respected Hermes’s neutrality. Hermes respected Hades’s authority. Neither tried to trick the other, which was, for both of them, the highest form of trust.

Hermes and Athena: The Partnership of Craft and Cunning

Athena was the goddess of strategic wisdom and craft. Hermes was the god of practical cunning and invention. Together, they formed a partnership that appears repeatedly in Greek myth.

In the story of Perseus, both gods equipped the hero for his quest. Athena gave him the polished shield, and Hermes gave him the adamantine sword. The Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus (2nd century CE) specifies that Hermes also provided the winged sandals and the cap of invisibility that Perseus used to approach the Gorgons.

The two gods shared a temple at the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, the Hermaia, where travelers left offerings before entering the city. This physical proximity reflected their conceptual proximity: Athena represented the wisdom that planned, Hermes the cleverness that executed. A Greek who prayed to one often prayed to the other.

The Tension Between Hermes and Ares

Ares and Hermes represented opposite approaches to conflict. Ares was brute force, bloodlust, and the chaos of battle. Hermes was negotiation, trickery, and the avoidance of violence when possible. They did not fight each other directly in any surviving myth, but they competed for influence.

In the Iliad, Ares charges into battle screaming. Hermes, by contrast, slips through the camp unseen, guiding Priam past guards and sleeping soldiers. One god wins through destruction, the other through deception. The Greeks valued both, but they valued Hermes more. Ares was the least popular Olympian among mortals. Hermes was among the most popular, with more surviving cult sites than any god except Zeus and Apollo.

What Hermes Meant to the Mortals Who Prayed to Him

The relationships between Hermes and the other gods mattered to the Greeks because they mirrored the relationships mortals had with the world. Hermes was the god of the road, the marketplace, the crossroads, the boundary stone. Every time a traveler left one village for another, every time a merchant made a deal, every time a person stood at a decision point, Hermes was there.

His cult was practical. Travelers piled stones at crossroads into herms (stone pillars with a carved head and phallus) and left offerings of wine, honey, and cakes. The Odyssey describes how even the most remote farmstead had a herm at the gate. Hermes was not a god of grand temples and elaborate festivals. He was a god of the roadside, the threshold, the moment between one thing and the next.

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes ends with Zeus declaring Hermes the messenger of all gods, the giver of good things, and the friend of mortals. That last title mattered. Hermes was the only Olympian who regularly helped humans without demanding worship in return. He guided travelers, protected thieves, and blessed merchants. He was the god you prayed to when you needed something done quietly and quickly.

How Hermes Connects to Other Deity Systems

Hermes did not stay Greek. The Romans identified him with Mercury, adopting his attributes of speed, commerce, and thievery almost unchanged. But the connection ran deeper. In Ptolemaic Egypt (after 305 BCE), Hermes was merged with Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and wisdom, to create Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Great Hermes), the legendary author of the Hermetic Corpus.

This syncretic figure became the foundation of Western esotericism. The Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of texts written between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, presents Hermes Trismegistus as a teacher of divine wisdom, alchemy, and astrology. The relationship between Hermes and other deities had expanded beyond Greek mythology into a philosophical system that influenced Renaissance magic, Rosicrucianism, and modern occultism.

For more on how Hermes evolved into this figure, see our guide to Hermes Trismegistus and the Hermetic tradition.

Common Misconceptions About Hermes and the Gods

The most persistent error is that Hermes was simply a messenger, a divine postman who carried notes between Olympus and Earth. The Greeks would have found this absurd. Hermes was a thief, a liar, a trickster, and a boundary-crosser. His messages were not passive deliveries. They were acts of negotiation, concealment, and often deception.

Another misconception is that Hermes was universally liked. He was not. Hera distrusted him because he was Zeus’s favorite errand boy. Poseidon had little use for him. The Furies (Erinyes) resented him for escorting souls past them. Hermes was tolerated because he was necessary, not because he was beloved.

A third error is confusing Hermes’s caduceus with the Rod of Asclepius, the symbol of medicine. The caduceus has two snakes and wings. The Rod of Asclepius has one snake and no wings. The confusion is modern, dating to the 19th century when the U.S. Army Medical Corps mistakenly adopted the caduceus as their symbol. Hermes had nothing to do with healing. That was Apollo’s son Asclepius.

FAQ

Did Hermes ever fight another god directly? No surviving myth describes Hermes in direct combat with another Olympian. He avoided violence, preferring trickery and negotiation. The closest he came was wrestling with the giant Hippolytus in some late sources, but this was not a god.

Why did Zeus trust Hermes more than his other children? Zeus trusted Hermes because Hermes was useful and because Zeus could monitor him. Hermes’s role as messenger required constant contact with Zeus, which meant constant supervision. Other gods like Ares or Dionysus operated independently, which Zeus distrusted.

Was Hermes considered a major or minor god? Major. Hermes had cult sites throughout Greece, appears in all major mythological cycles, and was one of the twelve Olympians. His popularity among common people was higher than most Olympians.

The God Who Held the Pantheon Together

Hermes was not the most powerful god. He was not the wisest, the strongest, or the most beautiful. He was the one who made the system work. Without him, messages went undelivered, souls wandered unguided, boundaries went unmarked, and the gods had no one to speak for them. The Greek pantheon was a network, and Hermes was the node that connected every point.

For a broader view of how Greek deities related to one another, explore our deity hub. You may also find our glossary of Greek mythological terms useful for understanding the names and places that appear in these stories.