Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth

Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth by Brown, Norman Oliver. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780940262263.

Hermes -- trickster and culture hero, divine child and patron of stealthy action, master of magic words, seducer and whisperer -- is a vital and complex figure in Greek mythology. Shepherd, craftsman, herald, musician, athlete, merchant -- who is this tricky shapechanger confronting us at every turn? This classic, prescient work (first published in 1947) foreshadows all subsequent work greeting the return of the gods. Brown asks whether Hermes the Thief is the prototype, from which the Trickster was derived by extension and analogy—or is the notion of trickery fundamental, and that of theft merely a specific manifestation of it?" Brown deals with myth and cult, art and ritual, gods and goddesses as he traces the evolution of Hermes from sacred stoneheap and phallus to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes and the Hesiodic poems. Hermes the Thief should be of fundamental interest to anyone concerned with mythology, Greek religion, or Hermeticism.