Hermes

"Young people don't always do what they're told, but if they can pull it off and do something wonderful, sometimes they escape punishment."

- Hermes

Hermes (Ερμής in Ancient Greek ) is the Greek god of roads, speed, messengers, commerce, travel, thieves, merchants, and athletics. His Roman counterpart is Mercury. He is Luke Castellan, Chris Rodriguez and the Stoll Brothers' father. Hermes is portrayed by Dylan Neal in The Lightning Thief (film).

Ancient times
Hermes was born sometime after the first Titan War to Zeus and a nymph named Maia. He matured rapidly and within a few days of his birth stole the cattle of Apollo and invented the lyre. He even thought of a clever way to cover up his crime.

Despite this, Apollo found out and went to Zeus for justice. When brought before his father, Hermes attempted to charm Zeus into letting him go. Undeceived but amused by the child's boldness, Zeus instead forced him to compensate Apollo which Hermes did by presenting him with his lyre. Hermes also traded the shepherd's pipe (another invention of his) to Apollo in exchange for his golden staff and knowledge of the art of prophecy. When he came of age, Hermes was made the messenger of the gods.

As the messenger of gods Hermes would often serve as the intermediary between the gods and the mortal world. He aided Odyesseus against Circe and told Calypso to either let him go or face the wrath of Zeus. During the Trojan War he sided with the Trojans and delivered Zeus's order to return Hector's body to his father. In some tales, he freed Zeus after the latter was initially defeated by Typhon and freed Ares from his imprisonment by the Alodai among numerous other feats.

The Sea of Monsters
During The Sea of Monsters he appears to Percy Jackson on the beach where he motivates the young demigod into going on a quest despite the fact Tantalus denied his request. The god also lends some help to Percy and his friends by supplying them with some handy magical items such as a thermos which acts as a compass and releases winds from the four corners of the earth and some vital vitamins. The real reason behind Hermes' actions is the hope that Percy will bring Luke, one of his numerous sons (and his favourite), back from the side of Kronos. Later, when Hermes brings Percy a letter from his father, Percy guiltily tells Hermes that he's sorry, that Luke wouldn't listen to him, and they ended up trying to kill each oher. Hermes comforts Percy, and says that there will be time for Luke to change his mind, and that immortal families are always messy, and there isn't much anyone can do about it. He seems to want Percy to defy Tantalus, Because he may have thought Percy could bring Luke to his senses.

"Well we kind of tried to kill each other in a duel to the death". Percy

"I see, so you tried the diplomatic approach". Hermes

"Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. The best we can do is remind each other that we're related and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum". Hermes(telling Percy he will not give up on Luke.

The Titan's Curse
He also makes a very minor appearance in The Titan's Curse when Percy is trialed by the twelve Olympians. He defends Percy fully and started the debate with the line

"All in favor of not disintegrating him?" when Apollo tried to do a haiku. He voted in favor of keeping Percy alive.

The Last Olympian
He makes five appearances in The Last Olympian: three in present time and two in a flashback. Hermes gets angry with Annabeth because she wouldn't run off with Luke, and Hermes is afraid that Luke won't have a chance now. Percy gets angry at him and asks him that if he loves Luke so much, why wasn't he around when Luke was a kid instead of abandoning him and letting Luke get angry at him and the other Olympians. Hermes is furious at the implication that he had abandoned Luke and forgot about him, he and Percy do not speak again until Luke dies, when Percy apologizes for his words.

Hermes forgives Percy, but is still grieving over his son. When the Fates take Luke's body, he gives him a final blessing. When Percy forces the gods to swear that they will claim their children by age thirteen, Hermes gives Percy a list of his children outside of Camp Half-Blood and asks him to personally escort them to the camp; Percy promises that he will.

It is stated in here that one of his duties is to monitor interactions between the divine and mortal worlds and help mortals rationalize these interactions. This is because he is the messanger between the divine and mortal worlds.(he seems bitter about this because he did not receive the glory and worship that the other gods had convinced him that he would get)

The Lost Hero
Hephaestus mentioned that Hermes is bored at home due to Zeus' ban that no Iris message's, visions, and dreams are being sent so he has nothing to deliver. He also says that a family of Cyclopes ate one of his sons from the Roman Camp.

Physical Description
He is described as appearing to resemble a middle-aged man with an athletic figure-slim and fit with salt-and-pepper hair (as a jogger) and in his original form, black curly hair, elfish features, and a sly grin. He has been known to sport nylon running shorts and New York City Marathon T-shirt while jogging, an outfit similar to a mailman's when delivering mail with a pith helmet which sprout wings, and a suit. He carries a cell phone which turns into a caduceus. He has been known to sport winged shoes, as said in the books.

Mercury
Hermes has the ability to change his appearance into his Roman counterpart, Mercury. As Mercury, he becomes more disciplined, warlike, and militaristic. It is known that he has children at the Roman Camp Half-Blood in San Francisco because the Cyclops, Ma Gasket mentions that she and her sons once ate a "son of Mercury." The Greeks envisioned Hermes as more of a god of messengers than a god of thieves. In contrast, the Romans envisioned Mercury as a god of thieves over a god of messengers.

Personality
In contrast to many of the other Olympians, Hermes is much more reasonable and helpful than the other major Olympian gods with a greater understanding of mortals. He is not prone to the overt arrogance of some like Zeus or Ares nor the character quirks like Apollo or Aphrodite. Part of this may be due to part of his job being to help mortals rationalize divine events giving him a greater understanding of things beyond himself. He is shown to care a great deal for his children and be far more accepting of others. Both traits not found as common among the major Olympians. His visits are often beneficial to gods and demigods and often helps them out though often this is at the request of another god or personal motivations. He tends to be one of the more clever gods as he tricked Argus into falling asleep and outsmarted Apollo when he was a child.

He can get very angry when crossed or when someone implies he does not care about his children. However, he takes his duties as a god seriously and will not breach them even to save his own children since not even he can defy fate and to do so would make things worse. All in all, he is by far one of the more reasonable and beneficial gods.

Children
Hermes has many children and all undetermined children go to Cabin #11 as explained by Luke in The Lightning Thief. His most mentioned child is Luke, who he seemed to love very much as seen in The Last Olympian when he blessed Luke and kissed his forehead before having the Three Fates carry off his body personally. Poseidon also told Percy in The Titan's Curse, that Hermes loved Luke so much up to the point that Luke became Hermes' pride and joy.

Greek Demigod Children

 * Luke Castellan
 * Connor Stoll
 * Travis Stoll
 * Chris Rodriguez
 * Other Hermes Cabin members
 * Harry Houdini
 * Gus
 * Autolycus
 * Tim Berners Lee (implied, since Hermes claims to have "invented the internet")

Roman Demigod Children

 * Jack London
 * Unnamed Son of Mercury mentioned by Ma Gasket in The Lost Hero

Immortal Children

 * Hermaphroditus (with Aphrodite)
 * Pan (with his wife, Penelope)

Powers
It is not mentioned what supernatural powers Hermes has, but much can be guessed from what he is known for.
 * As Hermes is the God of travellers and the messenger god, his children might be able to transport themselves like the children of Hades. This may be the case when Luke teleported at the end of The Lightning Thief.
 * Hermes is the fastest god and can travel the speed of wind due to his winged boots
 * Hermes is the god of thieves, so he might have a supernatural way of stealing things without others noticing.
 * Hermes presumably possesses the standard powers of a god.
 * Since Hermes is the god of sports and athletes, his children might excel in athletics.
 * Hermes is the god of inventions, and he invented the Internet, so his children might have a knack for inventing and creating.
 * Hermes can travel to and from the Underworld without harm.
 * Hermes may have the power of prophecy. As a child he persuaded Apollo to teach the art of prophecy to him. This may be how he knew Luke's fate.

Items

 * A caduceus that Hermes usually keeps in phone form. It has two intertwined snakes named George and Martha (who can extend to full form when the caduceus is in full form), possibly from George Washington and his wife Martha Dandridge Washington, or (more likely) from the two main characters of the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", a married couple who are frequently venomous towards each other.It was also his symbol of power.

Film
In the movie, The Lightning Thief, Hermes was played by Dylan Neal. Although he did not have a speaking line, they did zoom up on his face during the Olympian Council scene when Percy claimed that Luke was the one who stole the Zeus' Lightning Bolt. Luke also metioned his father a few times, such as when he told the trio about how he stole a pair of Hermes' Winged shoes.

Trivia

 * Hermes is the only god that can travel between the Underworld, Olympus and the mortal world freely, although Iris may be an exception.
 * Hermes is mentioned in the book The Red Pyramid, also by Rick Riordan, the first book in The Kane Chronicles. Thoth, the egyptian god of wisdom, mentioned that the Greeks had mixed him and Hermes up, and noted that he is nothing like Hermes, and quoted "if you ever met Hermes", hinting that the two series take place in the same world. He was also the only Greek God to be mentioned in the series.