From the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (lines 13-19), birth and initial character sketch of Hermes.
And she gave birth to a son resourceful and cunning, a robber, a rustler of cattle, a bringer of dreams, a night watcher, a gate-lurker, who was soon to display deeds of renown among the immortal gods: born in the morning, by midday he was playing the lyre, and in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting Apollo—on the fourth of the month, the day the lady Maia bore him.
καὶ τότ᾿ ἐγείνατο παῖδα πολύτροπον, αἱμυλομήτην,
ληϊστῆρ᾿, ἐλατῆρα βοῶν, ἡγήτορ᾿ ὀνείρων,
νυκτὸς ὀπωπητῆρα, πυληδόκον, ὃς τάχ᾿ ἔμελλεν
ἀμφανέειν κλυτὰ ἔργα μετ᾿ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν·
ἠῶιος γεγονὼς μέσωι ἤματι ἐγκιθάριζεν,
ἑσπέριος βοῦς κλέψεν ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος,
τετράδι τῆι προτέρηι, τῆι μιν τέκε πότνια Μαῖα.
In English the picture from the final three lines (‘born in the morning…’) is probably the more memorable element, but in Greek the specific descriptors are at least equally attention catching.
- πολύτροπον is famously the opening modifier of Odysseus in The Odyssey but where most accept that it there carries an intentional ambiguity – hitting both ‘much-turned/much-wandering’ and ‘turning many ways/wily’ – the sense here, given what follows, seems to tilt toward the second, more negative meaning.
- αἱμυλομήτην is a compound of αἱμύλος – ‘wily, wheedling’ and used mostly of words (see Hesiod Works and Days 374) – and a form of μητίω – ‘have in mind, think on.’ This is the word’s only appearance, but it is close in form and sense to the more common ἀγκυλομήτης (‘of crooked counsel’) used in Homer of Kronos and in Hesiod of Prometheus.
- ληϊστήρ is ‘robber’ or (because it appears in the Odyssey in a seafaring context) ‘pirate’. But in every other use I can think of (Od. 3.73 and a series of echoes in later books) it’s employed as part of a question from one character to another (‘are you a pirate?’) and always elicits a denial of some kind. This is the only Homeric instance I can remember where it’s used as a flat, unquestioned description by the narrating voice.
- ἡγήτωρ ὀνείρων – rendered here as ‘bringer of dreams’ – is built on ἡγήτωρ, a frequent Homeric word meaning ‘leader’ and elsewhere used in a martial context. ‘Bringer’ comes closer to the etymology of the based verb but might lose a background image of Hermes as not just bringing but marshalling dreams.
- νυκτὸς ὀπωπητῆρα – ‘a night watcher’ – ὀπωπητήρ appears only here but is generally taken as equivalent to equally rare ὀπτήρ – ‘spy, scout’.
- πυληδόκον – another word that only appears here, a compound of πύλη – ‘gate’ – and δοκεύω – ‘watch closely’. It would seem obviously connected to a thieving function but there could also be a hint of Hermes’ roles in passing to/from the underworld, πύλη also possibly invoking the frequent periphrasis πύλαι Ἀΐδαο – ‘gates of Hades’.
Extracts 