HERMENEUTIC8 



HERMES 



98* 



to rebuke the worldlinens that had come upon the 

 church, ami to turn sinners to repentance. 



Latin translation* were in tue before the end of the 2d 

 oentury, and for lonj; the work was known only through 

 a score of MS. copies of one of these version*. A second 

 IjUiu version has been discovered, however, as well as an 

 Kthiopio version, found l>y D'Abbadie in 1847, and edited 

 liv him with a Latin translation (I/eip. 1800). Of the 

 Greek text the Codux Sinaiticus supplies about one-fourth, 

 to nearly the end of the fourth commandment ; the rest, 

 except about seven short chapters, is in the Athos MS. 

 Considerable portions are found in Ptseudo-Athanasius 

 and Antiochus Paltustinensis, who have borrowed exten- 

 sively front Hernias without acknowledgment. In 1890 

 the discovery of a new Greek codex, contemiiorary with 

 the Sinaiticus, and containing the whole of Hennas, was 

 announced. There is a 'complete' Greek text by Hil- 

 genfeld (1888), who has also edited the Latin form 

 (1873); and a Collation of the Athos Codex has been 

 made by Dr Spyr. P. Lambros( trans, with preface, &c., 

 by F. A. Robinson, Camb. 1888). There is a good edition 

 of Latin and Greek by Gebhardt and Harnack (1877). 

 See also Zahn, DC r Hirt da Hermas ( 1868 ) ; Donaldson, 

 The Apostolical Fatliers (1874); Salmon's Introduction 

 to the New Testament (4th ed. 1889) ; and Johns Hopkins 

 University Circulars, iii. 75 and iv. 23. 



llermeneutics. See EXEGESIS. 



Hermes* on the testimony of art and literature 

 alike, was more intimately connected- with the 

 everyday life of the Greeks than was any other of 

 their gods. In the country his images were erected 

 on mountains, in caves, by the side of streams, by 

 the roadside, where they served as finger-posts, and 

 on the marches, where they served to delimit the 

 frontier. In towns the gate by which one entered 

 the city and the door by which one entered a house 

 were under the protection of an image of this deity. 

 The streets of the city, like the roads of the country, 

 were marked by statues of Hermes ( Lat. Hermte ). 

 Inside the house as well as outside its doors the 

 likeness of Hermes was to be found. The agora or 

 market-place of every city was especially under the 



Erotection of this deity, and possessed a statue of 

 im. The gymnasium and pala>stra also were decor- 

 ated with likenesses of their patron god Hermes. 

 Finally, in the very grave the Greek was accom- 

 panied by Hermes, the conductor of souls. 



From what has been said it is obvious that the 

 functions ascribed to Hermes, the son of Zeus and 

 Maia, must have been very considerable in number 

 and range. In the first place, he was regarded 

 unanimously and from the oeginning as the herald 

 and messenger of Zeus, and in virtue of this 

 character he is represented in art with the herald's 

 staff, with wings on his feet or shoulders, and a 

 traveller's hat of felt, low in the crown and broad 

 in the brim, on his head. It seems natural in the 

 next place to attribute Hermes' function as god 

 of the training ground to the speed of foot which 

 he as the herald of the gods was credited with. 

 Again, Hermes was the patron of thieves, and he 

 himself, according to the ' Hymn to Hermes,' com- 

 menced a thiefs career by stealing the oxen of 

 Apollo when he was but a few hours old. At the 

 same early age, according to the same authority, 

 Hermes invented the lyre, which he constructed 

 out of the shell of a tortoise. The invention of the 

 flute and the syrinx also was ascribed to this deity. 

 The function of conducting the spirits of the 

 departed to the next world, and the closely-related 

 function of bringing dreams to mortals, probably 

 were part of his duties as the messenger of the 

 gods, but are of so much importance that they need 

 separate mention. A function apparently quite 

 unconnected with any already mentioned is that of 

 securing fertility to flocks and herds, and generally 

 of preserving health. We have already noticed 

 that roads and streets in Greece were under the 

 especial care of Hermes ; we must then connect 



thin fact with the circumstance that Hennw* wan 

 the patron of travellers, merchant*, and commerce 

 generally. Finally, Hermes was the god of unex- 

 pected good-luck ; what we call a godsend the 

 Greeks called a Hernmion. 



AM to the origin of Hermes comparative myth- 

 ologists are disagreed, though perhaps not more HO 

 in liis case than in the case of other gods. He ha* 

 been regarded an the god of fertilising rain, an the 

 evening twilight or the light of dawn, as a cloud- 

 god, as a nether-world god, and of course as a solar 

 god. It is objected to these explanations that they 

 only account for some and not for all of his func- 

 tions. Thus, the fertilising rain would explain his 

 function of causing fertility (were it not for the 

 fact t lint' it is the fertility of flocks and herds that 

 Hermes is concerned with ), and the pleasant sound 

 of the falling rain might explain his connection 

 with music. But the other functions find no ex- 

 planation or but a forced one in this theory. It has 

 been therefore argued (by Roscher, Hermes der 

 Windgott ) that Hermes is a wind-god. The wind is 

 the divine messenger sent from Zeus ( the sky ) to 

 man. The wind sweeps down from the mountain- 

 tops, where again the images of Hermes were 

 placed. The swiftness of the wind is indicated by 

 the wings on the heels or the shoulders of the god. 

 The winds carry things away, even as the thief 

 Hermes. The wind, like Hermes the inventor of 

 the flute and the lyre, makes sweet music. Ghosts 

 that are but thin air, belong to the domain of the 

 air, and are under the dominion of the wind-god. 

 The gentle zephyrs not only favour the growth of 

 plants, but, according to ancient notions, conduced 

 to the fertility of flocks and herds. The winds also 

 blow away foul air and miasma, and the wind-god is 

 therefore 'properly the god of health. The chang- 

 ing wind has ever been the symbol of fickle fortune 

 and unexpected luck, and Hermes is the god of un- 

 expected good-fortune. Travellers are especially 

 dependent on wind and weather, and hence on 

 Hermes. Again, various epithets which are applied 

 to this god and have caused much trouble to 

 scholars can be explained on this theory. Argei- 

 phontes is the god who makes the sky clear, as 

 does the wind. Diaktoros is the chaser. The 

 name Hermes itself, or rather the older form 

 Hermeias, corresponds phonetically to the Sanskrit 

 Sarameyas, and is derived from the root sar, ' to 

 hasten,' whence conies the epithet Saranju, 

 applied to the Hindu Maruts, goas of the storm- 

 wind. 



That this explanation of the origin and functions 

 of Hermes explains everything cannot be denied. 

 Whether it is the right explanation is another 

 matter. Apart from the fact that there are not 

 many things for which an analogy could not be 

 found in the action of the wind, it may be doubted, 

 as a matter of general principle, whether we ought 

 to look for one idea from which to deduce all the 

 functions of a got!. We may borrow an illustration 

 from comparative syntax : no one would now think 

 of trying to deduce* all the meanings of the Greek 

 genitive from one single central idea. In the first 

 place, the Greek genitive conceals beneath it 

 several cases (just as the Greek Heracles conceals 

 several different local heroes}, such as the ablative, 

 the instrumental, &c. ; and, in the next place, even 

 the uses of the genitive proper were not as a matter 

 of history all evolved out of one nebulous use 

 equidistant from all sulwequent uses. The extcii 

 sion of the meaning of a case, like the extension of 

 the meaning of a word, is due to analogy, to its 

 application to expressions new but analogous to 

 those in which it was first employed. The same 

 principle of extension by 'contiguity.' as logician^ 

 call it, in all probability explains the heterogene- 

 ous functions ascribed to any one particular god. 



