Hermes is said to have three daughters with Selena, the Moon goddess, but nobody knows who they are nor their names. Hermes also had a beautiful child with Venus – Hermaphrodites. There are many other children of Hermes and most of their mothers were actually fairies or nature goddesses from the Earth.
It seems like that all of Hermes’ children had to choose between the path of Mercury of their father or the path of Venus of their mothers. And most of Hermes’ children, with just a few exceptions, actually took Venus’ ways. Pan, Daphnis, Priapus, Silenus, Hermaphrodites, Kefallos and almost all of his children preferred nature, entertainment, wine, women, fairies and music to hermetic sciences. But, even Hermes, when he was younger, lead an adventurous life. He took a more serious approach to life and sciences as Hermes Trismegistus, but that was when he got really old.
There were something “foolish” with all of Hermes’ children and they all suffered a lot in love. Almost like the tarot Fool, one of Hermes’ son, Daphnis, the first singer of ancient idyllic shepherd songs – boukolikae – fell down the abyss as he was blinded by his love to a nymph.
The more “hermetic” branch of Hermes offsprings started with his son Autolikos. He had inherited many of Hermes’ skills, so he also sang wonderfully and was great at playing the lyre. He also had a helmet which could make him invisible. Just like Hermes, Autlikos was especially fond of stealing kings’ cows. For some reason, stealing kings’ cows was one of Hermes’ and some of his children’s most favourite pastimes.
Autilikos’ grandson was famous Odyssey.
Odyssey boosted to be as smart as Autolikos who for that reason decided to give his grandson a lesson, just to show him who the boss was. So, one day Autolikos stole from Odyssey his helmet. And Odyssey did not even notice that it had been stolen.
Odyssey was later recognised as the smartest of all Greeks and as such a true Hermes’ representative on the Earth. Odyssey’s example was mostly a reason for Agrippa to link Greece to Mercury.
But for the hermetists maybe the most interesting is the case of Hermaphrodite, as he is the symbol of quicksilver of philosophers and perfect harmony between Hod and Netzchah.
Tat appears as Hermes’ son in later hermetic scriptures.
Pythagoras also claimed for himself that he was Hermes’ son. What Pythagoras probably meant was that he was Hermes’ student. Hermes was also a teacher of Aesclepius, a famous Greek physicians.
Essentially, since Pythagoras’ times, each sincere hermetist would say for himself that he is a Hermes’ child.
Talerman
