Editing Hermes (section)

===In the Classical period===
[[File:Achilles embassy Louvre G264 n3.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Hermes wearing a petasos. Attic red-figure cup, {{Circa|480–470 BC}}; from [[Vulci]]]]

The cult of Hermes flourished in [[Attica]], and many scholars writing before the discovery of the Linear B evidence considered Hermes to be a uniquely Athenian god. This region had numerous [[Herma]]i, or pillar-like icons, dedicated to the god marking boundaries, crossroads, and entryways. These were initially stone piles, later pillars made of wood, stone, or bronze, with carved images of Hermes, a phallus, or both.<ref name=transformer/> In the context of these herms, by the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]] Hermes had come to be worshiped as the patron god of travelers and sailors.<ref name=transformer/> By the 5th century BC, Hermai were also in common use as grave monuments, emphasizing Hermes's role as a chthonic deity and psychopomp.<ref name=transformer/> This was probably his original function, and he may have been a late inclusion in the Olympic pantheon; Hermes is described as the "youngest" Olympian, and some myths, including his theft of Apollo's cows, describe his initial coming into contact with celestial deities. Hermes therefore came to be worshiped as a mediator between celestial and chthonic realms, as well as the one who facilitates interactions between mortals and the divine, often being depicted on libation vessels.<ref name=transformer/>

Due to his mobility and his liminal nature, mediating between opposites (such as merchant/customer<ref name=transformer/>), 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.<ref name= Smith>Smith, William. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b8gOAAAAYAAJ&q=dictionary+of+greek+and+roman+biography+and+mythology Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429233506/https://books.google.com/books?id=b8gOAAAAYAAJ&q=dictionary+of+greek+and+roman+biography+and+mythology |date=29 April 2023 }}''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867. pp. 411–413.</ref><ref>Neville, Bernie. ''[http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/Vol%202/Vol2_1/Bneville.pdf Taking Care of Business in the Age of Hermes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720060443/http://trinity.edu/org/tricksters/TrixWay/current/Vol%202/Vol2_1/Bneville.pdf |date=20 July 2011 }}''. Trinity University, 2003. pp. 2–5.</ref><ref>Padel, Ruth. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCtd2ux19MwC&q=In+and+Out+of+the+Mind:+Greek+Images+of+the+Tragic+Self In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412055829/https://books.google.com/books?id=qCtd2ux19MwC&q=In%20and%20Out%20of%20the%20Mind%3A%20Greek%20Images%20of%20the%20Tragic%20Self |date=12 April 2023 }}''. [[Princeton University Press]], 1994. pp. 6–9.</ref>

In Athens, Hermes Eion came to represent the Athenian naval superiority in their defeat of the Persians, under the command of Cimon, in 475 BC. In this context, Hermes became a god associated with the Athenian empire and its expansion, and of democracy itself, as well as all of those closely associated with it, from the sailors in the navy, to the merchants who drove the economy.<ref name=transformer/> A section of the agora in Athens became known as the Hermai, because it was filled with a large number of herms, placed there as votive offerings by merchants and others who wished to commemorate a personal success in commerce or other public affair. The Hermai was probably destroyed in the [[Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC)]].<ref name=transformer/>

There was a popular, now lost play by the tragedian [[Astydamas]] with Hermes as the primary subject.