HERMES was recognized in Mycenaean tablets, and his nature was described in early Greek poems as that of a clever mediator among the gods or between gods and men, or as an archetypal messenger. Hermes gave the kings of Mycenae the scepter of Zeus (Homer, Iliad 100–108) and the lamb with the golden fleece, a fatal pledge of royalty for the Pelopides (Euripides, Orestes 995–1000). The ancient authors show the Peloponnesus as the most ancient and important environment where Hermes' cult had developed, but inscriptions and monuments show him worshiped everywhere in the Greek world. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes describes him as the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, locates his abode in a cave of Cyllene, and ascribes to him the invention of the lyre, made from a tortoise shell.

Hermes is also reported to have stolen fifty sacred cows from Apollo's herd—he hid the theft...