In the last book of the Odyssey (24.1-10), Hermes shepherds the souls of the dead suitors to the underworld with a lovely golden wand, which he also uses to lull mortals to sleep and to awaken them. Hermes’ mythic role as the psuchopompos or guide of souls is reflected in religious practice through prayers and offerings to Hermes Chthonios (of the Underworld) at the grave-site, attested in Thessaly and Argos.13 As the god of ways and boundaries, closely associated with the standing stones and cairns that marked graves, Hermes was an ideal guide for journeys between the worlds of the living and the dead. In Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers (1-5, 124-25), Orestes and Electra pray at their father’s grave to Hermes Chthonios, the deity who can summon spirits from under the earth. Usually invoked in private contexts, including curses and binding spells, Hermes Chthonios occasionally plays a role in public festivals honoring the dead. After the Persian wars, the heroic dead of Plataiai were summoned to an annual banquet in their honor by means of prayers to Zeus and Hermes Chthonios, and the Attic Anthesteria supposedly included a meal offered to Hermes Chthonios for the dead.14 The ghoulish, necromantic aspect of Hermes is balanced by his beneficent protection of souls in the vulnerable state between sleeping and waking. Homer (Od. 7.136-38) mentions that the Phaiakians offered libations to Hermes before retiring, while Apollodorus of Athens (FGrH 244 F 129) calls Hermes the oneiropompos or conductor of dreams, and says that he is a guardian of sleepers; people orient their beds so that the foot of the bed faces Hermes’ image, and pray to him before sleep.
World History
