Blog week 10 - Final Blog - the importance of being Hermes

Over the weeks it has become clear that Hermes was an important part of the ancient Greek pantheon, where the gods were used to check each other’s balance and no one of them assumed  control over the others.  Though we have seen that Hermes was not a threat to Zeus’ sovereignty, he was much more the helper than the balance of power to Zeus which we have seen in previous posts.  It has been interesting and now I can see why Hermes has been included in the game ‘Rise of the Argonauts’, a game fundamentally about travel, but also a dialogue heavy game with a range of action scenes included in it. With all the other myths that surround Hermes you can see where the modern interpretation for Hermes comes from, if it is from the old movie based on the Odyssey, the Kalypso scene can be found here. Or the recently released film ‘Immortals’, find the trailer here.  Not all the gods are properly introduced, I believe that Hermes is represented by the god with the winged helmet and later on is wielding a sword; we know that he used a sword to slay Argos Panopes, mentioned in the very first blog entry.  In both these films he is represented as a young and fresh faced god, much like his representation in some of the Greek mythology, like the Odyssey.  Though he is also represented as being older, like on the Herms, as seen in a previous post where he is bearded. This is something that happened later to the ancient Greeks due to their diet, though it is not represented in modern interpretations of Hermes. This is possibly because he is a bit of fun character and trickster, which is most likely seen today as something of a more youthful trait.