Editing Hermes (section)

==Functions==
Hermes began as a god with strong chthonic, or underworld, associations. He was a [[psychopomp]], leader of souls along the road between "the Under and the Upper world". This function gradually expanded to encompass roads in general, and from there to boundaries, travelers, sailors, commerce,<ref name=transformer/> and travel itself.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=Patricia O'Connell |title=World History: Our Human Story |last2=Holdren |first2=John |date=May 2021 |publisher=Sheridan Kentucky |isbn=978-1-60153-123-0 |location=Versailles, Kentucky |pages=115}}</ref>

===As a chthonic and fertility god===
{{One source section|date=May 2021}}

Beginning with the earliest records of his worship, Hermes has been understood as a [[chthonic]] deity (heavily associated with the earth or underworld).<ref name=transformer/> As a chthonic deity, the worship of Hermes also included an aspect relating to [[Fertility rite|fertility]], with the [[phallus]] being included among his major symbols. The inclusion of phallic imagery associated with Hermes and placed, in the form of ''[[herma]]'', at the entrances to households may reflect a belief in ancient times that Hermes was a symbol of the household's fertility, specifically the potency of the male head of the household in producing children.<ref name=transformer/>
[[File:Thanatos Painter ARV 1228 11 Charon receiving Hermes and a deceased woman (07).jpg|thumb|[[Charon]] with punt pole standing in his boat, receiving Hermes psychopompos who leads a deceased woman.  [[Thanatos Painter]], ca. 430 BC]]

The association between Hermes and the underworld is related to his function as a god of boundaries (the boundary between life and death), but he is considered a [[psychopomp]], a deity who helps guide souls of the deceased to the afterlife, and his image was commonly depicted on gravestones in classical Greece.<ref name=transformer/>

===As a god of boundaries===
[[File:Herma Hermes Getty Villa 79.AA.132.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Herm of Hermes; Roman copy from the Hermes Propyleia of Alcamenes, 50–100 AD]]
{{Further|Herm (sculpture)|Liminal deity}}

In Ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form ''herma'', was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones and each traveler added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BC, [[Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)|Hipparchus]], the son of [[Pisistratus]], replaced the [[cairn]]s that marked the midway point between each village ''[[deme]]'' at the central ''[[agora]]'' of Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of a bearded Hermes. An erect phallus rose from the base. In the more primitive [[Mount Kyllini]] or Cyllenian herms, the standing stone or wooden pillar was simply a carved phallus. "That a monument of this kind could be transformed into an [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] god is astounding," [[Walter Burkert]] remarked.<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], 1985. ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard University Press)</ref> In Athens, herms were placed outside houses, both as a form of protection for the home, a symbol of male fertility, and as a link between the household and its gods with the gods of the wider community.<ref name=transformer/>

In 415 BC, on the night when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] during the [[Peloponnesian War]], all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized. The Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from Syracuse or from the anti-war faction within Athens itself. [[Socrates]]'s pupil [[Alcibiades]] was suspected of involvement, and one of the charges eventually made against Socrates which led to his execution 16 years later was that he had either corrupted Alcibiades or failed to guide him away from his moral corruption.<ref>[[Thucydides]], ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'', 6.27.</ref>

===As a messenger god===
In association with his role as a psychopomp and god who is able to easily cross boundaries, Hermes is predominantly worshiped as a messenger, often described as the messenger of the gods (since he can convey messages between the divine realms, the underworld, and the world of mortals).<ref name="Blackwood"/>{{Better source needed|date=May 2021|reason=Source may be outdated}} As a messenger and divine herald, he wears winged sandals (or, in Roman art influenced by Etruscan depictions of [[Turms]], a winged cap).<ref name="Rochester">{{cite web |url=http://people.rit.edu/asg1478/iweb/midterm/hermes.html|author=Rochester Institute of Technology |title=Greek Gods |publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525090414/http://people.rit.edu/asg1478/iweb/midterm/hermes.html |archive-date=25 May 2013}}</ref>

===As a shepherd god===
[[File:Hermes crioforo.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Kriophoros Hermes (which takes the lamb), late-Roman copy of Greek original from the 5th century BC. [[Barracco Museum]], Rome]]

Hermes was known as the patron god of flocks, herds, and shepherds, an attribute possibly tied to his early origin as an aspect of Pan. In [[Boeotia]], Hermes was worshiped for having saved the town from a plague by carrying a ram or calf around the city walls. A yearly festival commemorated this event, during which a lamb would be carried around the city by "the most handsome boy" and then sacrificed, in order to purify and protect the city from disease, drought, and famine. Numerous depictions of Hermes as a shepherd god carrying a lamb on his shoulders (''Hermes kriophoros'') have been found throughout the Mediterranean world, and it is possible that the iconography of Hermes as "The Good Shepherd" had an influence on early Christianity, specifically in the description of Christ as "the Good Shepherd" in the Gospel of John.<ref name=transformer/><ref name=Shepherd>Freeman, J. A., Jefferson, L. M., & Jensen, R. M. (2015). ''The Good Shepherd and the Enthroned Ruler: A Reconsideration of Imperial Iconography in the Early Church''. The Art of Empire. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.</ref>