HERMES

Real Name: Hermes Trimegistus

Occupation: Herald of Zeus, Olympian god of commerce, speed, travel, and thieves, Patron god of thieves,

Legal Status: Citizen of Olympus

Identity: The general populace of Earth does not believe in Hermes except as a mythological character.

Other Aliases: Mercury (Roman Name), Cyllenius, Esus (Celtic Name), Quicksilver, God of the Stone Heap, Herman, He of the Stone Heap, "Old Heapy"

Place of Birth: Mount Cyllene in Arcadia (now part of modern Greece)

Marital Status: Single

Known Relatives: Zeus (father), Maia (mother); Clymene, Gaea (great-grandmothers), Ouranos (paternal great-grandfather, deceased), Iapetus (maternal great-grandfather); Cronus, Rhea (paternal grandparents); Atlas (maternal grandfather); Eprimetheus, Prometheus (great-uncles), Menoetius (great-uncle, deceased); Chiron, Hades, Poseidon (uncles); Calypso, Demeter, Hera, Hestia (aunts); Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hercules (half-brothers); Aphrodite, Artemis, Eileithyia, Eris, Hebe, Helen, Persephone, Pandia (half-sisters); Luke Castellan (deceased), Hermaphroditus, Pan (sons); Abderus, Autolycus (sons, deceased); Odysseus  (great-grandson, deceased); Cupid (nephew), Aeneas, Orpheus (nephews, deceased), Harmonia (niece)

Group Affiliation: The Gods of Olympus

Base of Operations: Olympus

First Appearance: (historical) Venus #7, (recent) Thor #129

History: Hermes is the son of Zeus, the King of the Olympian gods, and Maia, his ninth wife. Maia was one of the many daughters of the Titan-god Atlas who called themselves the Pleiades. Zeus, on one of his legendary amorous escapades, came to Maia in the cave she lived in on Mount Cyllene and she became the mother of Hermes. Hermes was considered highly crafty and intelligent during his childhood. He created the lyre from a turtle shell and secretly stole the divine cows of his half-brother, Apollo. He even sacrificed one of them to the gods and went so far as to include himself among the twelfth god as Olympus. When Apollo eventually traced his sacred cattle to Hermes, the god settled without a dispute and even bartered for the cattle using his lyre as an invention. Impressed by his bravado, Apollo sponsored Hermes into the Olympian Pantheon where he even intrigued Hera for deceiving Apollo. Hermes eventually became the messenger of the Olympian gods. As such, part of his duties were to guide particular souls or astral forms of the Olympians' mortal worshippers who had died down the underworld after death, a role he shared with the god of death, Thanatos.

Hermes was also sent on several missions to aid immortals and mortals alike at the behest of his fellow Olympians. Despite his reputation as a trickster, Hermes slew Argus, the original sentry if Olympus in order to rescue Io, one of his father’s favorite paramours in order to deceive Hera. He even proved himself to be a hero at times when the giant sons of Poseidon, Otus and Ephialtes, defied their father to attempt to conquer Olympus.

Much like his father, Hermes had numerous romantic dalliances with both other goddesses and mortal females. He wanted to marry Iris, the female herald of Hera, but she refused him even after giving birth to his son, the forest god Pan. Both he and Apollo fell in love with the mortal Chione and they both secretly seduced her separately one light. She gave birth to both Hermes’ son, Autolycus, the self-proclaimed king of thieves, and Apollo’s son, the poet Philammon. Hermes also fell in love with Aphrodite and went to Zeus for advice on how to approach her. Not realizing the source of Hermes’ infatuation, Zeus gave the young god the idea of stealing on e of her sandals while she was bathing and then ransoming it for her affection. Luring her to Egypt with it, he refused to return it unless she spent one night with him. Their son was Hermaphroditus.Enjoying the craftiness his other sons inherited from him, Hermes took a particular interest in all his mortal descendants. This was no more shown as in his attention to Odysseus, son of his granddaughter Anticleia. He gave Odysseus enchanted moly to protect him from the powers of the goddess Circe and persuaded his aunt, the island goddess Calypso to release him so that Odysseus could fulfill his mortal heritage.  (It is also known the Eternals Makkari, Sersi and Thena also posed as the representatives of Hermes, Circe and Athena on Earth, but it is unrevealed as to how much of an influence they had, if any, on Odysseus.)

Under unrevealed circumstances, Hermes became friends with both Anubis of the Egyptian Gods and Hermod of the Asgardian gods. After Zeus severed Hermes’ responsibilities as a god to his worshippers, Hermes and the two of them partook on several adventures on Earth often in bouts of competition testing the limits of their abilities. Hermes used his wily tricks in many occasions to befuddle them or tip the scales to his advantage, but it was never determined as to any of them were faster or more agile than the others.

Hermes’ interest in mortals and particularly in his descendants continued to the Twentieth Century. He took interest in a high school runner named Len Grant who was injured in a running competition. Grant insisted on participating in a track meet but as he was getting dressed for the run, Len was unable to find his socks and borrowed a pair he found in the locker room that Hermes had surreptitiously left for him to find for himself. Len found that his leg was healed and his speed greater than ever, enabling him to win the race with ease. Afterward, Hermes retrieved his magic socks and departed.

Hermes also tended to surround himself with mortals who caught in his interest in some form or another and granted them powers and immortality in order that they could surround him as a retinue of close friends. Among them was the mortal Jules Keen, a down on his luck habitual gambler who he had to his presence. He granted Keen increasing power over luck until he eventually became luck itself, or the god of luck. Keen soon realized that to never lose is a gambler's hell, as the gamble no longer held any interest or challenge. Keen also joined Hermes collection of allies once he realized that he had nothing more to challenge him.

From time to time, Hermes was still called upon by Zeus for certain favors. He was sent to Tartarus to retrieve Hercules who had been taken there by Hades. During the war between the Eternals and the Olympians, Hermes lost his usual puckish attitude and fought bitterly against the Eternal Makkari, who had impersonated him often in the past. The battle ceased not longer after it began, and Hermes returned to Olympus with his fellow Olympians.

Hermes also developed a sort of infatuation for Princess Diana of the Amazons, who had been the wartime heroine known as Wonder Woman. As the sorceress Circe set into motion spells to destroy the gods of earth for their power, Hermes attempted to stop her from escaping Tartarus, but she sacrificed him in order to create the spells to allow her to escape. Wonder Woman defeated Circe afterward, and Zeus restored Hermes to life afterward.

Hermes was present when Thor received the needed energies from Zeus to revive the Asgardians slain by the Celestials, and after Hercules was horribly injured in battle with the Masters of Evil, Hermes was sent by Zeus to return him to Olympus for recovery. Holding the Avengers to blame for Hercules’ injuries, Zeus then sent Hermes, Artemis and Dionysus to capture the Avengers on Earth and bring them to Olympus. Employing his superhuman speed, Hermes was able to defeat the Black Knight and Captain America. He also caught Captain Marvel from the sky after Artemis shot her down, and taken by Captain Marvel's beauty, but Artemis reminded him that she was their enemy. The Avengers, however, convinced Hermes that they were being held without reason because Hercules had turned down orders to stand down from the Masters of Evil and had charged ahead into a trap. As Zeus led Ares, Artemis and Dionysus against the Avengers, Hermes assisted Prometheus and Hera in their plan to end the fighting, and brought Hercules to Prometheus so that he might be healed. Revived but temporarily out of his cognizance, Hercules struck Hermes down but was finally restored to his full faculties by Dr. Druid. After Hercules himself opposed Zeus, Zeus realized his error, and ordered all Olympians to remain in Olympus and not interfere with the affairs of mortals.

In recent years, Hermes was summoned by Zeus to send a message to Asgard following the accusation of Hades and Ares that Thor had attacked them without provocation, but after listening to Pluto's case, Zeus decided to confront the Asgardians personally. The alleged incident was later dropped when it was revealed that Ares and Hades had taken the first blows on Thor in trying to gain vengeance on previous attacks.

However, Hermes and the other Olympians assaulted much later Thor themselves when he and Hercules visited Olympus in the wake of the attack by the Dark Gods. Since the Dark Gods had impersonated the Asgardians in the attack, Hermes believed that the Asgardians were responsible for the assault on their home. The ordeal had resulted in breaking the time-long truce between the Olympians and the Asgardians, but a new faith was accomplished after they both merged strengths against Desak the God-Slayer.

Height: 5’11”
Weight: 520 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Strength Level: Hermes possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift (press) 30 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Hermes possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian Gods. Like all Olympian Gods, he is immortal. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for Zeus or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Hermes does have some superhuman strength and his own Olympian metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical activities.

Hermes is quicker and faster than any other Olympian god, capable at excelling in speeds above even Apollo or Artemis. He can attain speeds over limited distances and even teleport himself between points in space or even dimensional barriers without faltering such as when he travels from Earth to Olympus. He can run on land at supersonic speeds (the speed of sound is 770 mph at sea level) restricted only by keeping touch with the ground, but he is also fully capable of speeds just below that of the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second at which he is completely invisible to mortal eyes, but not to other gods regardless if they are native to Olympus or not. His stamina is virtually inexhaustible due to his godly metabolism.

Abilities: Hermes is a capable inventor, surpassed in skill on Olympus only by Hephaestus, the smith-god. As the herald of the gods, Hermes is a god of eloquence, as well. Possessing uncanny prudence and cunning, Hermes is the master of thievery, perjury, and fraud.  He is also an excellent player of the lyre, a stringed instrument of his own making.

Weapons: Hermes wields a magical wand called the Caduceus which enables him to control beings lesser than gods, transform objects into gold and channel magical energies.  

Comments: This bio describes Hermes as he has appeared in the Marvel Universe, DC Universe, the Legendary Journeys and Percy Jackson adventures.

Hermes has been played by Nathan Fillion (Percy Jackson - 2013), Dylan Neal (Percy Jackson - 2010), Alexander Siddig (Clash of the Titans - 2010), Paul Shaffer (Disney's Hercules - 2000), Fred Douglas (The Odyssey - 1997), John Emmet Tracy (Supernatural, Episode: "Hammer of the Gods"), Jeremy Jax (Brave And the Bold - 2013), Henry Zebrowski (Gods Behaving Badly - 2012), Patrick Bristow (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Episode: "Thin Ice"), Benjamin Schick (Goddess of Love - 1988) and Michael Gwynn (Jason and the Argonauts - 1963) among others.

CLARIFICATIONS: Hermes should not be confused with: