HERMES

(cla ical myth.), known _to the Romans as Mercury, the swiftooted me enger of the gods, who also a the dead to Hades, He was i, ee notorious for cunning and di imulation, was the patron of commerce, and the god. of Eloquence. His parents were Zeus and Maia. He is generally represented as a beautiful, naked youth, bearing 2 caduceus. ‘1 by which the Greeks denoted the Egyptian god Thoth, looked on as the originator of learning and culture; considered in the early centuries A.D. to be author of many occult treatises known as the Here metic Books, an encyclopaedia of Gk. learning. A then i an poet who wrote satirical comedies.