The Odyssey Hermes Quotes

"You are our messenger, Hermes, sent on all our missions.
Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree:
Odysseus journeys home – the exile must return.
But not in the convoy of the gods or mortal men.
No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains,
on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria,
the land of Phaeacians, close kin to the gods themselves,
who with all their hearts will prize him like a god
and send him off in a ship to his own beloved land,
giving him bronze and hoards of gold and robes –
more plunder than he could ever have won from Troy
if Odysseus had returned intact with his fair share.
So his destiny ordains. He shall see his loved ones,
reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 33-46. Zeus instructs his son Hermes to deliver his command to Calypso concerning Odysseus. He has decreed that the exiled hero is to return home. But he is to make the journey alone and on a raft that he must build himself. Zeus also warns that Odysseus’ journey will not be an easy one, but full of pain. However, he prophecies that Odysseus will end up back in his homeland of Ithaca with many treasures, because that is his destiny.

The powerful giant-killer,
swooping down from Pieria, down the high clear air,
plunged to the sea and skimmed the waves like a tern
that down the deadly gulfs of the barren salt swells
glides and dives for fish,
dipping its beating wings in bursts of spray –
so Hermes skimmed the crests on endless crests.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 53-59. As Hermes flies to Calypso’s island, he is compared to a seabird skimming the sea in search of fish. This is one of Homer’s many glorious epic similes to be found throughout The Odyssey and the Iliad. Hermes earned the nickname the giant-killer because he lulled the hundred-eyed giant Argos to sleep with his music and slew him with his sword.

"God of the golden wand, why have you come?
A beloved, honored friend,
but it’s been so long, your visits much too rare.
Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m eager to do it,
whatever I can do…whatever can be done."
And the goddess drew a table up beside him,
heaped with ambrosia, mixed him deep-red nectar.
Hermes the guide and giant-killer ate and drank.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 98-105. Even the gods abide by the ancient Greek rule of hospitality. Here Calypso provides food and drink for visiting messenger of the gods, "honored friend" Hermes.

"Now Zeus commands you to send him off with all good speed:
it is not his fate to die here, far from his own people.
Destiny still ordains that he shall see his loved ones,
reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 125-128. Hermes tells Calypso of Zeus’ command that she must release Odysseus. Destiny has ordained that the Greek hero will return to native land and home at last, Hermes says. This prophecy foreshadows that Odysseus will reach his home in Ithaca.

"how would you like to bed the golden Aphrodite?"
"Oh Apollo, if only!" the giant-killer cried.
"Archer, bind me down with triple those endless chains!
Let all you gods look on, and all you goddesses too –
how I’d love to bed that golden Aphrodite!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 380-384. Like humans, the gods have a sense of humor too, as shown by this banter between Apollo and Hermes in the bawdy tale told by bard Demodocus. Apollo and Hermes are talking about how they would bed the goddess of love Aphrodite. This is after Aphrodite is caught in the act of adultery with god of war Ares. The goddess is married to god of fire Hephaestus.

"But wait, I can save you, free you from that great danger.
Look, here is a potent drug. Take it to Circe’s halls –
its power alone will shield you from the fatal day.
Let me tell you of all the witch’s subtle craft…
She’ll mix you a potion, lace the brew with drugs
but she’ll be powerless to bewitch you, even so –
this magic herb I give will fight her spells."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 10, lines 317-323. After Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs and erases their memories, Hermes comes to the rescue. The messenger of the gods offers Odysseus a drug that will make him immune to Circe’s potion when he visits her at the palace.

"Now here’s your plan of action, step by step.
The moment Circe strikes with her long thin wand,
you draw your sharp sword sheathed at your hip
and rush her fast as if to run her through!
She’ll cower in fear and coax you to her bed –
but don’t refuse the goddess’ bed, not then, not if
she’s to release your friends and treat you well yourself.
But have her swear the binding oath of the blessed gods
she’ll never plot some new intrigue to harm you,
once you lie there naked –
never unman you, strip away your courage!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 10, lines 325-334. Hermes explains to Odysseus a strategy to help deal with Circe and save his friends from her. Here we see the gods once again intervening in the fates of mortals, in this case to help Odysseus.

With a wave of this he stirred and led them on
and the ghosts trailed after with high thin cries
as bats cry in the depths of a dark haunted cavern,
shrilling, flittering, wild when one drops from the chain –
slipped from the rock face, while the rest cling tight…
So with their high thin cries the ghosts flocked now
and Hermes the Healer led them on, and down the dank
moldering paths and past the Ocean’s streams they went
and past the White Rock and the Sun’s Western Gates and past
the Land of Dreams, and they soon reached the fields of asphodel
where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals, make their home.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 24, lines 5-15. With a wave of his gold wand, Hermes leads the souls of the crying suitors into Hades. As well as being the messenger of the gods, Hermes is also the conductor of the dead to the underworld. In an epic simile the cries of anguish of the suitors are compared to the squeals of bats hanging from the roof of a large dark cave.
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