Swift as the Wind I

Hermes is the Messenger of the Gods and Personal Assistant of Zeus. He is charming and likable but not always will behave.  Hermes often plays tricks to show his skill,  yet the gods still trusts him with many important missions.  A versatile gods of many talents, he created many innovations that from numbers to musical instruments, and travels, inventors, liars, thieves, and athletes.

He is also the shrewdest and most cunning of all the gods, the master thief who began his career before he was one day old, by stealing Apollo’s herds. A few hours after his birth the mischievous infant escaped from his cradle and traveled to Pieria, where he saw the splendid herds of Apollo and decided to take them. Carrying off some of the finest of his half-brother's renowned cattle, the infant Hermes returned to his native Arcadia. The cunning child made the cattle walk backwards to obscure their tracks!

He bribed a man named Battus, who had seen him, to be silent. Sacrificing two of the stolen animals, he divided them into twelve parts for the twelve great gods of Mount Olympus, hiding the rest of the herd. It was this theft that won Hermes recognition as a god himself.

Finding a tortoise outside his cave, Hermes further displayed his godly talent by placing strings across its shell, thus inventing the lyre. He sat there sweetly playing this marvelous new instrument, happy as a baby god could be.

Meanwhile Apollo, using his prophetic powers (not to mention the fact that Battus did not keep his word, but had revealed the secret), had discovered the identity of the cattle thief and promptly arrived at Cyllene, confronting baby Hermes and charging him with the crime.

Zeus found Hermes guilty and ordered him to return the cattle, but just then Hermes pulled out his lyre and started playing. Apollo, the god of music, was intrigued with the musical instrument that Hermes had invented. As a way of apology for all the trouble he had caused, Hermes gave the lyre to Apollo, and the grateful Apollo in return told Hermes to keep the cattle he had stolen. Soon the two were best of friends. Zeus, too, was impressed with young Hermes who soon became a handsome young man and an exceptional athlete. It was said that he ran faster than the wind. With his keen eye for talent, Zeus appointed Hermes as his personal messenger, as the god of commerce and the marketplace, and as protector of all gymnastic games. As the patron of all gymnastic games in Greece, and gymnasia were under his protection. The Greek artists derived their ideal of the god from the gymnasium and thus they represented Hermes as a handsome youth with beautiful limbs harmoniously developed by athletic exercises and gymnastic excellence.

The blessing of Hermes: Gym Edition