Hermes and Krishna

Hermes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

So-called “Logios Hermes” (Hermes,Orator). Marble, Roman copy from the late 1st century CE - early 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 5th century BCE.

Messenger of the gods

God of commerce, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and border crossings, guide to the Underworld

Abode ---Mount Olympus

Symbol---- Caduceus, Talaria, Tortoise, Lyre,Rooster,

Consort----- Merope, Aphrodite, Dryope, Peitho

Parents ------Zeus and Maia

Children------ Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche,Abderus, Autolycus, and Angelia

Roman equivalent -----Mercury

Hermes is the great messenger of the gods inGreek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves,[1] of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics and sports, of weights and measures, of invention, and of commerce in general. His symbols include the tortoise, the rooster, the winged sandals, the winged hat, and the caduceus.

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek religion , Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of commerce.The Homeric hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one "of many shifts (polytropos), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods."

He protects and takes care of all the travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones and thieves that pray to him or cross his path. He is athletic and is always looking out for runners, or any athletes with injuries who need his help.Hermes is a messenger from the gods to humans, sharing this role with Iris. An interpreter who bridges the boundaries with strangers is a hermeneus.Hermes' name is the root of the word "hermeneutics", the study and theory of interpretation. In Greek a lucky find was a hermaion. Hermes delivered messages from Olympus to the mortal world. He wears shoes with wings on them and uses them to fly freely between the mortal and immortal world. Hermes was the second youngest of the Olympian gods, being born before Dionysus.

Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the Titan, Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, and therefore was a patron of athletes.According to prominent folklorist Yeleazar Meletinsky, Hermes is a deified trickster. Hermes also served as a psychopomp, or an escort for the dead to help them find their way to the afterlife (the Underworld in the Greek myths). In many Greek myths, Hermes was depicted as the only god besides Hades, Persephone, Hecate, and Thanatos who could enter and leave the Underworld without hindrance.

Hermes often helped travelers have a safe and easy journey. Many Greeks would sacrifice to Hermes before any trip.In the fully developed Olympian pantheon, Hermes was the son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia, a daughter of the Titan Atlas. Hermes' symbols were the rooster and the tortoise, and he can be recognized by his purse or pouch, winged sandals,winged cap, and the herald's staff, the kerykeion. The night he was born he slipped away from Maia and stole his elder brother Apollo's cattle.

Etymology

The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek e-ma-ha, written in Linear B syllabic script. However the identification of the name is unclear, and its etymology is controversial. Some claim it is simply unknown, or not of Greek origin. It may have derived from Hermeneus, which means the interpreter. Plato, giving voice to Socrates, tried to establish an origin of the name, saying that Hermes was tied to speech, interpretation and transmission of messages, all activities connected to the power of speech (eirei), and that in course of time eirein was embellished and turned into Hermes. The most common idea is that it was derived from herm, a sacred boundary-marker or road-altar, dedicated to Hermes since ancient times. Nilsson and Guthrie believe it means "one Cairn," a primitive form of Hermes, but this source is also disputed.

Mythology

The origin of Hermes is uncertain. Some consider him a native god that was worshiped since the Neolithic era, while others suggests that he was an Asian import, perhaps via Cyprus or Cilicia well before the beginning of written records in Greece. What is certain is that his cult was established in Greece in remote regions, likely making him a god of nature, farmers and shepherds. It is also possible that since the beginning he has been a deity with shamanic attributes linked to divination, atonement, magic,sacrifices, and initiation and contact with other planes of existence, a role of mediator between the visible and invisible worlds. Among the functions most commonly linked to him in Greek literature are messenger of the gods, and god of language, speech, metaphors, prudence and circumspection, as well as intrigues and covert reasons, fraud and perjury, wit and ambiguity. Thus he was a patron of speakers, heralds,ambassadors and diplomats, messengers and thieves. He was believed to have invented fire, the lira, the syrinx, the alphabet, the numbers, to astronomy, a special form of music, the arts of fighting, the gym and the cultivation of olive trees, the measures, the weights and various other things.

Due to his constant mobility, he was considered the god of commerce and social intercourse, the wealth brought in business, especially sudden or unexpected enrichment, travel, roads and crossroads, borders and boundary conditions or transient, the changes from the threshold, agreements and contracts, friendship, hospitality, sexual intercourse, games, data, the draw, good luck, the sacrifices and the sacrificial animals, flocks and shepherds and the fertility of land and cattle. In addition to serving as messenger to Zeus, Hermes carried the souls of the dead to Hades, and directed the dreams sent by Zeus to mortals.

Kriophoros Hermes (which takes the lamb),

late-Roman copy of Greek original from the fifth century BC. Barracco Museum, Rome

Note to be elaborated ---

Most probably the Ram indicates the Aries constellation --

and Hermes represent Planet Mercury as well as Pleiades Constellation ---

note that Pleiades constellation falls within the area of Aries constellation --

note that his mothers name is Pleiades maia ---

note that Krishna calls his mother as "Maia"---

note that name of mother of Maia is "Pleione" (referring to Pleiades)

The first descriptions of the myth of Hermes date from the Archaic period of Ancient Greece. One of the most important myths appears in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, dating to the seventh or sixth centuries BC and deals with his birth and early exploits. The hymn opens with a salutation to the god, calling him the lord of Mount Cyllene and Arcadia, the flocks of sheep, and messenger of the gods. It also names him as the son of Zeus, the result of his adulterous love with Maia, a nymph daughter of Atlas and Pleione. Living in a cave, hidden from human eyes and particularly the notoriously stormy and jealous Hera, Zeus' wife and sister, Maia gave birth to "this ingenious child, this clever deception planner, tracker and capturer of cattle, a shepherd of dreams, this citizen of the night lurking in doorways." The infant Hermes was precocious. His first day he invented the lyre. By nightfall, he had rustled the immortal cattle of Apollo. For the first sacrifice, the taboos surrounding the sacred kine of Apollo had to be transgressed, and the trickster god of boundaries was the one to do it. Hermes drove the cattle back to Greece and hid them, walking them backwards so that their tracks seemed to be going in the wrong direction. When Apollo accused Hermes, Maia said that it could not be him because he was with her the whole night. However, Zeus entered the argument and said that Hermes did steal the cattle and they should be returned. While arguing with Apollo, Hermes began to play his lyre. The instrument enchanted Apollo and he agreed to let Hermes keep the cattle in exchange for the lyre.

Homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts, and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad he was called "the bringer of good luck," "guide and guardian" and "excellent in all the tricks." He was a divine ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector. When Priam got it, Hermes took them back to Troy. He also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey he helped the protagonist, Odysseus, informing him about the fate of his companions, who were turned into animals by the power of Circe, and instructed him to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calipso Zeus' order for her to free the same hero from her island to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes lead their souls to Hades. In The Works and Days, when Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to disgrace humanity by punishing the act of Prometheus giving fire to man, every god gave her a gift, and Hermes’ gift was lies and seductive words, and a dubious character. Then he was instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.

There are plenty of other myths featuring Hermes. Aeschylus wrote that Hermes helped Orestes kill Clytemnestra under a false identity and other stratagems, and also said that he was the god of searches, and those who seek things lost or stolen. Sophocles wrote that Odysseus invoked him when he needed to convince Philoctetes to join the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks, and Euripides did appear to help in spy Dolon Greek navy. Aesop, who allegedly had literary received his talents from Hermes, put him in several of its fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, edible roots, hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence. Pindar and Aristophanes also document his recent association with the gym, which did not exist at the time of Homer.

Hellenistic Greek sources

Several writers of the Hellenistic period expanded the list of Hermes’ achievements. Callimachus said he disguised himself as a cyclops to scare the Oceanides and was disobedient to his mother. One of the Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. Aeschylus had called him by this epithet several times. Another is the Orphic Hymn to Hermes, where his association with the athletic games held in tone is mystic.Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts, and Pseudo-Apollodorus reported several events involving Hermes. He participated in the Gigantomachy in defense of Olympus; was given the task of bringing baby Dionysius to be cared for by Ino and Athamas and later by nymphs of Asia, followed Hera, Athena and Aphrodite in a beauty contest; favored the young Hercules by giving him a sword when he finished his education and lent his sandals to Perseus. The Thracian princes identified him with their god Zalmoxis, considering his ancestor.

Throughout the Hellenistic period, Hermes acquired a particularly important status as an image of Logos and interpreter of the divine will, and went from being a mere expressive character to acting creatively, taking on roles of demiurge, an change which is mainly attributed to the Stoics, Gnostics and Neoplatonists. Apparently, this time began the merger of Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth, who flourished as the figure of Hermes Trismegistus.

Epithets of Hermes

Kriophoros

Hermes Kriophoros, Hermes, lamb-bearer appears both early and later. His ram connection appears in the earliest Mycenaean Linear B inscription bearing his name. Pausanias reports the lamb-carrying rites still being performed at the Boeotian city of Tanagra in the late 2nd century CE.

Argeiphontes

Hermes' epithet Argeiphontes (Latin Argicida), or Argus-slayer, recalls his slaying of the hundred eyed giant Argus Panoptes, who was watching over the heifer-nymph Io in the sanctuary of Queen Hera herself in Argos. Putting Argus to sleep, Hermes used a spell to close all of Argus' eyes and then slew the giant. Argus' eyes were then put into the tail of the peacock, symbol of the goddess Hera.

Logios

Hermes o Logios as the name (and the god as the emblem) of a Greek literary magazine of the 18th and 19th c. which had a major role in Modern Greek Enlightenment.

His epithet of Logios is the representation of the god in the act of speaking, as orator, or as the god of eloquence. Indeed, together with Athena, he was the standard divine representation of eloquence in classical Greece. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes (probably 6th century BCE) describes Hermes making a successful speech from the cradle to defend himself from the (true) charge of cattle theft. In the 5th century BCE Proclus' commentary on Plato's Republic describes Hermes as the god of persuasion. Other Neoplatonists viewed Hermes Logios more mystically as origin of a "Hermaic chain" of light and radiance emanating from the divine intellect (nous). This epithet also produced a sculptural type.

Hermes and Phallus symbol ---

Reference ---http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus

In traditional Greek mythology, Hermes, god of boundaries and exchange (popularly the messengergod) is considered to be a phallic deity by association with representations of him on herms (pillars) featuring a phallus. There is no scholarly consensus on this depiction and it would be speculation to consider Hermes a type of fertility god. Pan, son of Hermes, was often depicted as having an exaggerated erect phallus.

Note that the Thiruvona Nakshatra (Shravana Nakshatra ) is considered to be the birth Nakshatra of Vishnu (Other wise Krishna) . In the symbol scheme of Jyotisha Vedanga --the male genitalia symbol coincides with Thiruvona nakshatra (Shravana Nakshatra )

See the following link to see the comparative chart of Symbols and Nakshatras of Jyotisha Vedanga --(Serial no.22 in the Table)-of Indus civilizationsite --

Follow the below given link to see Jyotisha Vedanga Table----

http://tinyurl.com/3u9bqjh