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 mail deliverers. His Roman counterpart is Mercury. He is the father of Luke Castellan, Chris Rodriguez, and the Stoll Brothers. Hermes is portrayed by Dylan Neal in The Lightning Thief (film).

History
Hermes was born sometime after the first Titan War to Zeus and a nymph named Maia. He matured rapidly and within a few minutes 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 by telling him he was just an innocent new born baby. 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 Odysseus 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
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 magical vitamins. The real reason behind Hermes' actions is the hope that Percy will bring Luke, one of his numerous sons, back from the side of Kronos. Later, when Hermes brings Percy a letter from his father, Percy says that he's sorry, that Luke wouldn't listen to him, and they ended up trying to kill eachother. Hermes comforts Percy, and says that there is still time for Luke to change his mind, 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.

The Titan's Curse
When Percy is tried by the twelve Olympians, he defends Percy and asks the other gods who were in favor of not disintegrating him. When Apollo tries to do a haiku he interrupts and says that they should move onto the next topic. He voted in favor of keeping Percy alive. During the Olympian celebrations, Hermes has a conversation with Percy, but is interrupted by a call on his caduceus.

The Last Olympian
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, letting Luke become 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 and kisses his son on the forhead. 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 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 messenger 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 told him that he would get.

The Lost Hero
Hephaestus mentioned that Hermes is bored at home due to Zeus' ban that no Iris messages, visions, and dreams are being sent so he has nothing to deliver. When Jason, Leo, and Piper are in Detroit, they stumble upon a family of cyclopes made up of Ma Gasket and her sons. The trio talk about how they had just eaten a child of Mercury, one of Hermes' children from Camp Jupiter.

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 to 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 the fates and to do so would make things worse. All in all, he is by far one of the more reasonable and beneficial gods.

Appearance
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 wear 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 can change into his Roman counterpart of Mercury. As Mercury, he becomes more disciplined, militaristic, and warlike. He has children and perhaps descendants at Camp Jupiter in San Francisco. The Greeks envisioned Hermes as a cunning and resourceful being. The Romans saw Mercury more as the god of commerce and trade rather than simply thievery and travel.

Abilities
It is not mentioned what supernatural powers Hermes has, but much can be guessed from what he is known for.
 * Hermes is the fastest god and can travel the speed of wind due to his winged shoes
 * 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.
 * Hermes is the god of inventions, and he invented the Internet.
 * As the messenger of the gods, Hermes can go to both Hades' and Zeus' domain's.
 * 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.

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 dead body. 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 (deceased)
 * Connor Stoll
 * Travis Stoll
 * Chris Rodriguez
 * Other Hermes Cabin members
 * Autolycus
 * Gus
 * Harry Houdini (deceased)
 * Harriet Tubman (deceased)
 * Aethalides

Roman Demigod Children

 * Jack London (deceased)
 * Unnamed Son of Mercury mentioned by Ma Gasket in The Lost Hero (deceased)
 * Possibly more unnamed children.

Immortal Children

 * Hermaphroditus (with Aphrodite)
 * Pan (with Penelope, but other myths claim it was Dryope, a nymph; faded)

Symbol of Power
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.

The Lightning Thief
Hermes wTLqhB9Tz_g 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 mentioned 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.
 * 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.
 * The first planet from the Sun, Mercury, is named after Hermes's Roman counterpart.
 * The element Mercury is named after Hermes's Roman counterpart.
 * The caduceus is often confused with the Staff of Asclepius, which is a sign of healing, whilst the caduceus is not.