Hymn to Hermes
Hermes · Zeus · MaiaThe celestial Hermes — a god of business, of the market and the gymnasium. The fumigation here is frankincense, the offering of the Olympian gods; the chthonic Hermes in the same collection gets storax (orphic-hermes-chthonios-001), and the rubric declares the class at once.
Ἑρμηνεῦ πάντων — interpreter of all. The hymn asserts the very connection between Hermēs and hermēneus from which our word "hermeneutics" descends. And immediately, λόγου θνητοῖσι προφῆτα — prophet of speech to mortals: the god is called a mediator not between gods and men but between meaning and utterance.
Γυμνάσιν ὃς χαίρεις δολίαις τ᾽ ἀπάταις — you who delight in exercises and in crafty deceptions. The wrestling ground and fraud are joined by "and", without qualification: both are dexterity, and dexterity is one department. Horace brings the same qualities together just as shamelessly (mercurius-003).
Κερδέμπορε — trafficker in gain; ἐργασίαις ἐπαρωγέ — helper in enterprises. This hymn is sung by people with takings.
Εἰρήνης ὅπλον ἀμεμφές — the blameless weapon of peace. This is the caduceus: an object shaped like a weapon whose function is to stop hostilities.