GRGR (17) : Hermes

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Hermes is the divine trickster, a figure of ever-changing
colors. His name points to a single phenomenon--herma: a
heap of stones. Like at a party I attended at red rocks
where a heap of broken promises from a sweet grateful deader
we called Eliot dropped a moon on her tongue under the
shadow of this red rock and each guest added a stone to the
pile to announce their presence. Herma: demarcation,
territory proclaimed, a phallic display sometimes replaced
by stones or snakes. Stone cairn and apotropiac phallos go
together. So how did this heap of stones, what became a
monument or Hermes become an Olympian god? Poets of course.
They combined two major motifs: the messenger of the gods
from Near Eastern epic and the mythical trickster. The
stones are boundaries or taboos and lots of stories treat
the breaking or transgressing of these boundaries or taboos. 

Now the story of his birth at dawn and the theft of the
cattle, slaughter of oxen, the gift of the lyre should
include the song that Hermes sings to the accompaniment of
the  newly invented instrument --"of the immortal gods of
the dark earth, how they first arose and how they each
received their portion."  Remember, Hermes also invents fire
and fire sticks and sacrifice to the twelve gods so he is in
this at least a rival to prometheus and of course prometheus
is a Pynchon trouble maker of a different color and we
should remember that Hermes, the trickster, is the breaker
of taboos. Back in Homer's Iliad we find that Hermes is a
fugitive and a thief, but he is more of a secret agent with
cunning (kleptein: to steal with cunning and secrecy)(?) 
than a criminal. Reminds me that Benny profane is a mock
Job/Prometheus and after he helps Stencil break into the
dentist's office and steal the teeth he wishes he had a
mustache, thinks of himself as a jewel thief. Pynchon twists
these various myths--here we can consider also Thoth--and
applies the disparate attributes and stories with his own
irony and manic humor. Homer is not without this black
humor, remember that when Achilles violates the corpse of
Hector to extreme, the gods consider whether the simplest
solution to the violation might be to have Hermes steal the
body. Maybe Homer didn't intend that to be funny, but I
think it is. More important is that  Priam's mission of
supplication to Achilles is set in motion, at nightfall by
the boundary stone and Hermes appears to Priam as a youth.
He uses power to induce sleep (he has a magic staff for
this) on the Achaen sentries, opens the gate to the
courtyard in front of Achilles' hut and vanishes leaving
Priam and Achilles to confront eachother. Hermes also
arranges for Priam's safe return and as has been noted
Hermes helps Odysseus on the isle of Circe showing him the
moly. Hermes is also described with his golden shoes (did
Dorothy have golden shoes in the story?) in Homer on way to
Calypso. Hermes also uses his magic sleep and wake staff on
the multi-eyed Argos then slays him with a stone. This is
another example of the broken taboo that inaugurates a
festival.  Hermes breaks the biggest boundary of all, that
between the living and the dead. Again in the Odyssey he
summons the souls of the slain suitors from Odysseus's
palace to the meadow of Asphodelos which later is combined
to include Hermes leading souls to Charon. Hermes alone
knows the way in and out and so in the Hymn to Demeter it is
Hermes who brings Kore back to Hades and it is Hermes that
escorts Eurydice back forever to the world of the dead. So
Hermes is the god of boundaries and the transgression of
boundaries, the patron of herdsmen, thiefs--cattle rustling
(Odyseus's grandfather, Autolycos, for example), graves, and
heralds. So in the Odyssey, the swineherd, Eumaios sets
aside a portion for Hermes at the sacral meal. He is also
the interpreter, translator, communicator with strangers and
enimies--Hermeneutic.