24.339–371

ὣς ἔφατ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ἀπίθησε διάκτορος ἀργεϊφόντης.
αὐτίκ᾽ ἔπειθ᾽ ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα
ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια, τά μιν φέρον ἠμὲν ἐφ᾽ ὑγρὴν
ἠδ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν ἅμα πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο:
εἵλετο δὲ ῥάβδον, τῇ τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει
ὧν ἐθέλει, τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει:
τὴν μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχων πέτετο κρατὺς ἀργεϊφόντης.

So [Zeus] spoke, nor did the slayer of Argos, the messenger, disobey.
Right away he bound under his feet the beautiful sandals,
golden and immortal, which bore him over the water
and boundless earth as swiftly as a puff of wind.
He took up the wand, with which he enchants the eyes of mortals,
whomever he wishes, and wakes up those who are sleeping.
Taking the wand in his hand the powerful slayer of Argos flew off.

Iliad 24.339–45

These verses appear verbatim in the Odyssey when Zeus sends Hermes to release Odysseus from the clutches of Calypso (Od. 5.43–49) and recur in part when Hermes escorts the souls of the dead suitors to the Underworld at the end of the poem:

Ἑρμῆς δὲ ψυχὰς Κυλλήνιος ἐξεκαλεῖτο
ἀνδρῶν μνηστήρων: ἔχε δὲ ῥάβδον μετὰ χερσὶν
καλὴν χρυσείην, τῇ τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει
ὧν ἐθέλει, τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει:

Hermes of Cyllene summoned the souls
of the suitors, then took up the wand,
golden and immortal with which he enchants the eyes of mortals,
whomever he wishes and wakes up those who are sleeping.

Odyssey 24.1–4

The extended description here of the god’s preparation and gear underscore again that his role in the episode to come will reflect his function as the guide of souls. His trickiness, another major attribute, will also be needed.

After the soothing familiarity of the traditional phrases, the poet ratchets up the dramatic tension by reminding us of the danger the two old men face, traveling alone across the empty plain. The countryside, especially after dark, is rarely benign in early Greek poetry, but rather the site for robbery and rape. When Hermes materializes out of the gloaming, the shock frightens the herald and makes Priam’s hair stand on end. Hermes has taken the form of a beautiful young man, presumably to ease the old men’s fears, and moves to reassure them, taking Priam by the hand and speaking softly (360–71). The young helper who suddenly appears to guide the hero is a recurring figure in the Odyssey. Athena takes the persona of a girl to point Odysseus toward the palace of Alkinous (7.19–77), then appears as a young man to advise him after he is delivered to the shore of Ithaka (13.221–49). Nausicaa and Telemachus also play that role, the former on Scheria, the latter in Ithaka. Another apposite example appears in Book 10, when Odysseus describes Hermes approaching him as he is making his way toward the dangerous goddess Circe:

"ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ ἄρ᾽ ἔμελλον ἰὼν ἱερὰς ἀνὰ βήσσας
Κίρκης ἵξεσθαι πολυφαρμάκου ἐς μέγα δῶμα,
ἔνθα μοι Ἑρμείας χρυσόρραπις ἀντεβόλησεν
ἐρχομένῳ πρὸς δῶμα, νεηνίῃ ἀνδρὶ ἐοικώς,
πρῶτον ὑπηνήτῃ, τοῦ περ χαριεστάτη ἥβη:
ἔν τ᾽ ἄρα μοι φῦ χειρί, ἔπος τ᾽ ἔφατ᾽ ἔκ τ᾽ ὀνόμαζε:
'πῇ δὴ αὖτ᾽, ὦ δύστηνε, δι᾽ ἄκριας ἔρχεαι οἶος,
χώρου ἄιδρις ἐών; ἕταροι δέ τοι οἵδ᾽ ἐνὶ Κίρκης
ἔρχαται ὥς τε σύες πυκινοὺς κευθμῶνας ἔχοντες.
ἦ τοὺς λυσόμενος δεῦρ᾽ ἔρχεαι; οὐδέ σέ φημι
αὐτὸννοστήσειν, μενέεις δὲ σύ γ᾽, ἔνθα περ ἄλλοι.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε δή σε κακῶν ἐκλύσομαι ἠδὲ σαώσω.' "

"But when I was going through the holy glens
about to come to the great house of Circe, skilled in drugs,
Hermes, with his golden wand, met me
going toward the house, looking like a young man
with his first growth of beard, the loveliest age for a young man,
and stroking me with his hand, he spoke and called me by name:
'Where, unhappy man, are you going, alone through the hills,
ignorant of the landscape, while your companions are confined here with Circe,
shaped like pigs, penned up in their crowded pig pens.
Did you come to free them? I do not think you yourself
will get back home again but will stay here along with the others.
But I will free you from your troubles, and I will save you.' "

Odyssey 10.275–86

Here, as in his mission to Priam, Hermes, disguised as a beautiful young man, arrives just in time to protect the hero, who is hoping to release someone important to him. Hector has already lost his life, but so have Odysseus’s crewmen, living now as pigs. Both heroes are heading for an encounter with a divine being (insofar as the katabasis motif defines Achilles as the god of death). The poet is drawing on his rich poetic tradition to lay in the pieces of his elaborate framework for the meeting to come in Achilles’s hut.

With Hermes’s first words to Priam, the poet calls up another important lens through which we will see this encounter and the more momentous one to follow in the Greek camp. The god’s first use of πάτερ (362) need not carry a literal meaning, since the term is used in Homer as a polite way to address any older man, but Hermes soon removes all doubt:

"ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ οὐδέν σε ῥέξω κακά, καὶ δέ κεν ἄλλον
σεῦ ἀπαλεξήσαιμι: φίλῳ δέ σε πατρὶ ἐΐσκω."

"But I myself will do you no harm and would protect
you from another man, for I liken you to my own father."

Iliad 24.370–71

We do not yet know precisely how the father-son relationship will figure in the coming exchanges between Priam and Achilles, but the love of a parent for his or her child is all over the Iliad, beginning with the priest Chryses and his daughter in the opening scene of the poem. The dynamic will be central to our understanding of the Achilles’s evolution toward adult manhood.

Further Reading

Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: The Oral Art of Homer, 183–185. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Redfield, J. 1975. Nature and Culture in the Iliad, 210–214. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Schein, S. 1984. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad, 158–159. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Van Nortwick, T. 2009. The Unknown Odysseus, 83-90. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.