The Adventures of Hermes, God of Thieves

by Murielle Szac

  “Hermes, as my older son, would you accept to look after this youngster?”

  Hermes promised that he would. So as not to attract Hera’s attention, Zeus and Hermes had to take their leave of Maia and the baby quickly. Yet from that day on, Hermes would often go and pay a visit to little Arcas.

  As he grew up, the boy became a handsome young man. Hunting was his passion. He ran in the woods and looked for game for hours on end. Yet there was an inward sadness about him, the sadness of children who have been separated from their mothers. Neither Maia nor Hermes had told him what had happened to his mother. Then, one day, he found himself face to face with a great bear. He pointed his bow and arrow in the animal’s direction, yet he hesitated for a few moments. The bear did not try to escape and was looking at him. Something in the bear’s affectionate gaze troubled him. It was his own mother, but Arcas did not know that. Fortunately for him, Hermes was not far away. He rushed to Zeus, shouting: “Father! Father! Come quick! Arcas is about to kill his mother without knowing it!” The young hunter had just drawn his arrow when Zeus appeared. He barely had enough time to divert the arrow from its course. The great bear approached and dropped her paw lightly on Arcas’ head. The young man’s heart softened and he fell upon his knees. And, so that mother and son would never again be separated, Zeus transformed the young man into a bear and affixed both son and mother for ever in the sky as constellations of stars. Since that time, one has been called the Great Bear and the other the Little Bear. And each time that Hermes would fly in the night sky, he never failed to wave to the mother and son, reunited at last.

  Faithful to his new mission, Hermes no longer contents himself only with delivering the messages of the gods. He travels across the earth seeking the shadows of the dead. Once he has seen one of them, he will approach gently; he will indicate with a slight gesture that it should follow him. He takes by the hand the more tired shadows, those who have already been looking for the way to the Underworld for a long time. And he leads them in this manner to the banks of the river of the Underworld. Hermes’ reward is the smile on their faces once they have arrived at long last at the kingdom of the dead. His task ends there. Sometimes he crosses the river with them in order to go and say hello to his uncle Hades. More often than not, however, he goes away again immediately.

  To be continued…

  EPISODE 56

  IN WHICH A YOUNG GODDESS DISAPPEARS

  Previously: Hermes has resumed his travels with Zeus. In this way he has been able to protect little Arcas, whose mother had been transformed into a bear.

  There was, in the palace of Olympus, a goddess whom Hermes almost never saw, and that was his aunt Demeter. The reason was that she spent little time in the company of the other gods. Her duties brought her most often down to earth. She was the goddess of the Harvest. It was she who made the wheat grow in the fields and all the good things that men could cultivate and eat. This generous goddess had had a daughter with Zeus, called Persephone. Demeter was besotted with her: to put it simply, she lived only for her daughter’s sake. Whenever Demeter left to go down to the earth so she could take care of the harvests, she would return as soon as possible so she might be reunited with Persephone.

  Persephone too adored her mother. Yet she would have liked to be allowed a little more freedom.

  “Mummy,” she would implore, “let me go out a little without you. What could possibly happen to me? I am tired of waiting for you to come back so I can go to the earth for a walk.”

  Yet Demeter always refused: “You are far too pretty, my flower of love, something awful might happen to you, and I could never bear it.” And she would press Persephone tight against her heart.

  A day came when, as a result of her relentless insisting, Persephone finally got permission to go down to the earth for a walk without her mother. It was a beautiful spring morning and Demeter had to help men sow. Accompanied by fifty or so nymphs, Persephone headed for a great flowering meadow nearby. The young goddess looked ravishing. The fields burst with colourful flowers. The beautiful Persephone began to pick great bunches of them. There were roses, irises, bluebells and crocuses, everything one needed to make the most sumptuous flower arrangement. Suddenly, her gaze was caught by an absolutely extraordinary flower, a flower she had never seen before. This flower was red and silver and it was called narcissus—and neither god nor man had ever come across such a wonder. Persephone approached and bent down to pick the flower, when suddenly an enormous pit opened in front of her and she vanished inside it. As she fell, the young goddess let out a scream. At the other end of the earth, her mother Demeter heard her daughter’s cry. Mad with worry, she came running. “What has happened? Where is Persephone?” shouted the poor mother. But her daughter’s companions did not know what to reply. They could only shake their heads and weep: they had seen nothing except a strange flower and then a great pit which had gobbled up the young goddess. At that, Demeter also let out a rending scream and threw herself onto the ground weeping. But where had Persephone disappeared to?

  To be continued…

  EPISODE 57

  IN WHICH WE WITNESS A MOTHER’S DESPAIR

  Previously: Persephone, the beloved daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the Harvest, has disappeared.

  Demeter’s lament rang out across the entire universe. Night had fallen by the time she stood up again. The goddess lit a torch and set out into the world to look for her daughter. She walked on and on and on, without allowing herself a moment’s rest. She did not stop to drink, eat or sleep. Only the scream let out by her daughter repeated itself endlessly in her mind. In a voice full of anguish, she asked each person she met along her way: “You haven’t seen my daughter Persephone, by any chance?” But no one had. It was as though Persephone had vanished from the face of the earth.

  Hermes was very unhappy about what was happening. As soon as he had learnt of the disappearance of the young goddess, he too had sought to discover what had happened to his cousin. As he was ferreting for clues in the palace corridors, he caught sight of his uncle Hades. Well, that was surprising… The god of the Underworld must surely have some matter of great importance to settle if he had come here himself. His curiosity aroused, Hermes approached on tiptoe and glued his ear against the door of the council hall where Zeus and Hades were talking in private.

  “You cannot refuse me this!” growled Hades. “I have been madly in love with Persephone since the day I saw her. I want to marry her.”

  With great embarrassment in his voice, Zeus replied to him:

  “My dear brother, I would very much like to make you happy, but Demeter would never forgive me if I let you take Persephone to live with you in the Underworld far away from her.”

  “Be careful, Zeus, I am the god of the Underworld, and I too am very powerful,” threatened Hades’ voice.

  Hermes gave a little jump. He wondered how his father would be able to get out of this.

  Zeus replied: “I do not underestimate your power, Hades, quite on the contrary, as I will prove to you: you are, in fact, so powerful that you can do without Zeus in order to take care of this sort of business…”

  Silence ensued. Hades had understood the message: he was free to do as he pleased and Zeus would turn a blind eye to his conduct. Behind the door, Hermes shuddered. He saw Hades leave the palace discreetly. The conversation he had overheard identified the culprit of the abduction. Yet he could not speak about it without betraying the fact that he had listened behind closed doors! He could do no more than follow Demeter’s course, hoping that she would pick up a trail in the end.

  After nine days and nine nights of walking like a madwoman, Demeter was hardly recognizable. She had lost weight, her plump cheeks had become hollow, her rosy complexion had turned extremely sallow, her hair had grown white like that of a very old woman and her clothes, now rent and covered with dust, made her look like a beggar. On the morning of the tenth day, Demeter presented herself at the door of the palace of Helios. The serv
ants of the sun god refused to allow her to enter, filthy and miserable as they saw her. Yet rosy-fingered Aurora was returning to the palace just then. She recognized Demeter immediately and was filled with pity. At that instant, Helios, the sun god, was taking out his chariot to begin the day’s race. Aurora seized the horses by their harness and stopped Helios:

  “Helios, look at this mother’s despair! Look at her anguish and her suffering! You cannot remain indifferent. Just looking at her makes the tears well up in my eyes. You are the sun, you always see everything that takes place on earth and you know what has happened to her daughter. I beseech you, you must tell her!”

  Helios’ head was bowed. He did not dare look Demeter in the face. Yes, of course he knew. Demeter looked at him, her hands clasped together, waiting for him to decide to speak. Aurora was holding back the horses, which were beginning to get impatient. The day had to rise now without fail and with no further delay. Helios turned at last towards Demeter and said to her:

  “It is Hades who has abducted your daughter to make her his wife. She has been living in the Underworld. And Zeus, who is fully aware of this, has let him go ahead with it.” After saying these words, he tore the reins away from Aurora’s hands and stormed away in his chariot at a full gallop.

  Demeter did not have the presence of mind to thank him or the rosy-fingered Aurora, for that matter. As soon as she learnt the appalling news, she buried her head in her hands. Her daughter, condemned to live below the earth for ever! Her daughter, whom she would never see again! Shattered, she walked away from the palace of Helios without a word. A violent anger was surging up inside her. So, Zeus had been cowardly enough to allow his own daughter to be taken to the Underworld! Well, since this was the way things were, Demeter decided never to return to Olympus. “I am no longer a member of this family of hypocritical and lying gods,” she murmured. “I will no longer take care of anything whatsoever on earth, neither the sowings nor the harvests, until my daughter has been restored to me.”

  Hermes looked at her as she grew distant on the road ahead, her body bent like an old woman’s, and his heart became heavy. If the generous Demeter were to forsake her place among the gods, who was going to look after the earth? Who would make the grains and the plants grow? Was the earth going to turn into a desert?

  To be continued…

  EPISODE 58

  IN WHICH DEMETER SOWS SADNESS

  Previously: Demeter, the goddess of the Harvest, has discovered that her beloved daughter has been abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld. She has also learnt that Zeus has not protected his daughter. Mad with grief, she refuses to return to Olympus and decides to tend no longer to anything on earth until her daughter has been restored to her.

  It had been days and days since anything had grown on earth. The plants had lost their leaves, the flowers had withered and the fruit had dried up on the trees. Soon there was nothing left except dry and yellowed grass instead of wheat. The animals, who could no longer find anything to eat, died one after the other. And men, who became hungrier and hungrier, began to die as well. They wept and beseeched the good goddess Demeter to resume her place among the gods. They called her name and hoped that she would return to tend the harvests. But the goddess had disappeared.

  Looking at the devastation on earth, Hermes was despairing as well. He had always liked men, the protégés of Prometheus, and their misfortune made him miserable. When he flew above the earth, all these desolate landscapes filled him with sorrow. He searched for Demeter so he could convince her to come back. But no one could recognize the goddess any more, who walked barefoot in the dust like an old beggar woman and knocked on doors so she might be offered a glass of water or a chunk of bread.

  While Hermes had been looking for her, Demeter had reached the doors of a palace, the palace of King Keleos. The king’s maidservants had let this tired old woman into the kitchen. Exhausted by her long march, Demeter had sat down in the inglenook of the fireplace. She was very thirsty. So when one of the servants offered her a bowl of mint-scented water, she drank it quickly. Aah! How sweet that fragrant water felt in her throat! She drank so quickly that she spilt a little on the side. She had not noticed that a small child called Abas had come into the kitchen and was watching her drink. “Oh, how messily you drink!” the child said to her.

  Demeter turned her head round sharply on Abas, she looked at him intensely and the child was instantly changed into a lizard! The lizard fled in zigzags out of the kitchen. The maidservants, who had seen nothing, came into the kitchen shouting: “Abas! Abas! Where are you hiding?”

  They asked the old beggar woman, who was resting by the fire, whether she might not have seen the eldest son of King Keleos, a little boy called Abas. Yet she shook her head to say no, and the maidservants left to search for the little boy farther away. Demeter already regretted having changed the king’s eldest son into a lizard. Yet she could do nothing for him now.

  That evening, the entire palace bewailed the sudden disappearance of little Abas. Seeing the king and the queen weep, Demeter decided to do something for their second son. That child was a baby a mere few days old. Demeter chose to make him immortal. She slipped inside the child’s room; the nursemaid who looked after him had fallen asleep at the foot of his crib. Demeter took the baby delicately in her arms and went back to the kitchen on the tips of her toes. “How cute you are, little one,” Demeter murmured to him. “You remind me of my beloved daughter Persephone when she was born.” Once in the kitchen, Demeter told him: “Do not be afraid, I shall give you eternal life. When I am done, you will be beyond the reach of death.” She then took out of her pocket a flask containing ambrosia and nectar with which she rubbed the baby’s entire body. Then she placed the baby over the flames in the fireplace and began to pronounce spells of immortality. The child was encircled by the fire, but it did not burn. The magic was almost ready to work, when the child’s nursemaid entered abruptly into the kitchen. She had woken up with a start and, discovering the crib empty, had searched for the baby everywhere. She saw the old beggar woman holding the baby in the midst of the flames and she let out a sharp yell. The scream startled Demeter, and the goddess stopped her magic incantations. But as the child was not yet immortal, it instantly caught fire. Furious, Demeter set the baby down on the ground. She looked at it with tenderness and said to him: “I am truly sorry, baby. Don’t worry, your burns will heal soon, but you will never be immortal. You too shall grow and become a man, then an old man. And one day you too shall die, like all men. I wish you a good and happy life. Good bye!” The baby was now wailing; the goddess placed a kiss on his brow and then she fled into the night.

  The day rose. Hermes, who was still looking for his aunt, could see nothing but the hard and cracked earth, the blackened trunks of the shrivelled olive trees and the yellowed undergrowth. With tears in his eyes, he decided to try to persuade Zeus to intervene.

  Would Hermes be able to get his father to listen to him? Would he be able to save the earth?

  To be continued…

  EPISODE 59

  IN WHICH HERMES IS ASSIGNED A VERY DELICATE MISS ION

  Previously: Ever since the goddess Demeter has been refusing to tend to it, the earth has gone dry. Hermes has decided to persuade Zeus to intervene.

  When he reached Mount Olympus, Hermes saw a throng of gods and goddesses assembled on one of the palace terraces. He landed in their midst and he realized that they were all talking about how catastrophic the situation was for the earth and for mankind.

  “This cannot go on any longer!” said someone.

  “Demeter must resume her work!” said another.

  “She is so irresponsible! She thinks only of herself!” cried the high-pitched voice of white-armed Hera.

  “No, it is Hades who is irresponsible,” Athena replied drily to her, “he should not have abducted her daughter.”

  The gods were all arguing in this manner while looking at the earth, where nothing grew any more. At
that moment, Zeus made his appearance. There was instant silence. His worries had dug two furrows on his forehead. Hermes swallowed hard; it was not going to be easy to ask him for anything today…

  “Where is Hermes?” asked Zeus all of a sudden. “Someone fetch Hermes immediately!” The crowd drew back to let the messenger god get past, who said in a very small voice:

  “I am here, daddy…”

  “My son,” said Zeus, placing both hands on Hermes’ shoulders, “you are well acquainted with the Underworld, my brother Hades’ kingdom. You will go there without delay and you will try to bring Persephone back in our midst. Tell my brother that unless he gives Persephone back to her mother, the earth and mankind will perish. Come, off you go, and make sure you succeed!”

  His father’s hands pressed hard on Hermes’ shoulders. This new mission was certainly one of the most difficult ones in his life. The messenger of the gods flew as swiftly as he could to the Underworld. He waited for old Charon to arrive with his boat in order to cross the River Styx.

  “You’ve come all alone today,” grumbled Charon. “You haven’t accompanied anyone dead here.”

  Hermes boarded the boat without replying. Then he asked: “So what news from the Underworld?”

  “Oh, don’t even ask,” replied Charon with his trailing voice. “Hades is in love. But his sweetheart will not stop crying. She wants to see the light of day again. She wants to see her mother again. Hades does not know what to do any more to stop her from crying! It’s all too depressing…”

  When he arrived at Hades’ palace, Hermes discovered Persephone, pale, streaming with tears, sitting on the throne next to Hades’ own. She was clutching her handkerchief tight against her body with an air of utter despair. Down on his knees, Hades was squeezing her hand telling her sweet words of love. Yet the young goddess could only reply: