Original subtitles

(intense orchestral music)

(light harp music)

- [Narrator] Imagine a mischievous god,

a god who is a liar and a thief.

A rogue who regards insolence as a virtue.

A god who eavesdrops and tells mind-boggling stories.

Imagine a swift and agile god who guides travelers

on their way, points out bargains to traders,

finds what has been lost, but pilfers possessions.

This god is Hermes.

(playful string music)

He turns up when you least expect him.

He vanishes when you thought he was there.

Hermes was the final offspring of Zeus's amorous affairs.

His mother, Maia, was a glorious goddess.

Maia was one of seven Pleiades,

daughters of the giant Atlas, known for their beauty.

(quiet orchestral music)

The Pleiades suffered a tragic fate.

They were pursued for many years by a great hunter,

a giant, Orion.

To protect them, Zeus turned him into a dove, then a star.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

For now, Maia, one of the Pleiades,

has sought refuge is the south of Arcadia,

far from the gaze of Hera, the legitimate spouse of Zeus.

And there, in a cave in Mount Cyllene, Hermes was born.

His mother wrapped him in blankets as was the custom

with newborn babies, and placed him in a wicker basket,

appointing a nymph as his wet nurse.

Hermes, though, was not like other newborn babies.

Incredibly precocious, he could already speak and walk.

Some hours after his birth, taking advantage of his

mother's absence, he slipped out of the cave

and set off along the road.

(footsteps)

In due course, he came to Thessaly where his elder brother,

Apollo, had been put in charge of a magnificent herd

of livestock owned by King Admetus:

12 cows, and a hundred fabulous heifers with golden horns.

Hermes glanced around.

There was nobody there.

Apollo, as was his wont, was undoubtedly busy

seducing beautiful mortal women.

Either that, or he was off courting Hymenaios,

a nice young man who'd been consuming his thoughts

for some time.

(adventurous music)

The opportunity was too good to miss.

Theft is easy, the hard part is leaving no clues.

To cover his tracks, Hermes concealed his steps

by wrapping his feet in foliage,

and then making the animals walk backwards,

he purloined them.

He took them far away to the foot of the Mount Pylos,

a remote spot in the Peloponnese.

The place seemed deserted.

Hermes stopped.

One cannot be too careful, so after double-checking

that no one would surprise him, he curried favor

with the gods by sacrificing two beasts,

cutting them up into 12 parts.

He then burnt their carcasses and hid the herd

behind a hill before setting off

on the return journey to his cave.

(footsteps)

(ominous music)

At this point, all-seeing Zeus decided

to make his son the god of thieves and liars.

This was the only remaining attribution on Olympus,

the one nobody wanted, the one that was left

for the youngest of the family.

(beautiful orchestral music)

(inquisitive music)

Hermes left Pylos.

He set off on the road again, carefree as ever.

Soon he was back at his cave.

He was just about to enter when he noticed a tortoise

lounging in the sun.

He observed it for a moment.

What could he do with it?

Grabbing it, he emptied it of its entrails,

and then, across the hollow of the shell,

he stretched strings made from the guts of

one of the animals he had sacrificed.

The first lyre had just been created.

(lyre flourish)

The enraptured child took his new toy,

hid it in his swaddling clothes,

and then went to bed as though nothing had happened.

(wind blowing)

(suspenseful music)

Meanwhile, back in Thessaly, Apollo soon noticed

that his herd had vanished.

He moved heaven and earth to no avail.

Having scoured the earth from east to west,

from north to south, he had no choice

but to call in the satyrs.

The satyrs were strange creatures, half man, and half goat.

Well aware of their greed, Apollo promised them

a generous reward if they managed to track down his herd

and bring him the culprit.

That was all it took to scatter the satyrs

in every direction, scouring every corner of the world.

But they found nothing.

The herd seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Just as they were about to abandon their quest,

there floated up, not far from Mount Cyllene,

music such as they had never heard before.

Guided by the melody, they reached the entrance

of the cave where they saw Hermes.

The nymph stood guard.

The satyrs questioned her

on the source of this extraordinary music.

She explained to them that an unusually gifted child

had fashioned a musical instrument

out of the carapace of a tortoise, and the guts of a cow.

Where had these guts come from?

The nymph replied that she did not know.

The satyrs were about to leave when suddenly

one of them spotted the carcass of a heifer

lying nearby with golden horns.

Intrigued, he had a quick look inside the cave.

A child lay drowsing in his cradle.

He could not possibly be the thief.

The satyrs immediately ran back to report to Apollo.

(running footsteps)

Apollo was astonished.

He knew very well who it was in that cave:

Hermes, his own stepbrother.

Struggling to suppress his anger,

Apollo hurried to Maia and demanded that her

scoundrel of a son show him where he had hidden his herd.

Maia pointed to the child swathed in blankets.

This accusation is absurd!

My son is incapable of such a crime.

Hermes, who had heard everything,

protested in turn his innocence.

The notion was ridiculous.

He was but a sweet, newborn baby.

Apollo would hear nothing of it.

He grabbed Hermes and dragged him to Zeus,

brandishing the carcass of the heifer he'd been

mindful to secure as a proof.

Dawn had not yet broken,

and the master of Olympus was still asleep.

No matter, Apollo burst into his chamber

and took him as his witness.

Zeus found it hard to believe that a newborn baby

could carry out such a deed.

Apollo insisted, became worked up, and produced proof.

Finally Zeus was persuaded.

He demanded that Hermes return the herd without delay.

He scolded him, lectured him,

but deep down, he was delighted by the trick

his son had played on the frivolous Apollo.

(dramatic musical resolution)

"All right," said Hermes, and promised to return the herd.

But he hastened to add that two cows would be missing,

those he had sacrificed and cut up

into 12 equal parts to offer the 12 gods of Olympus.

(fire cracking)

12 gods?

Apollo was surprised.

But on Olympus, there were only 11.

Who was the 12th?

"I am," replied Hermes.

(footsteps)

Apollo spluttered in astonishment.

Zeus, though, could scarcely conceal his admiration

for a child who was proving

to be a very interesting character indeed.

(pleasant music)

Before setting off on his way,

Hermes picked up the lyre he had fashioned

and began to improvise a tune.

Apollo was captivated.

These new, harmonious sounds struck a chord in his heart.

The god Apollo was the patron of artists,

musicians, and poets.

The song filled him with wonder.

So much so that he soon forgot all his grievances

against his young stepbrother,

and singing to himself along the way,

fell in behind Hermes and followed him to the place

where the herd was hidden.

(birds chirping)

Things seemed to be returning to normal.

Apollo, though, was hesitant.

Since leaving the cave, he had been haunted

by the instrument that produced this wonderful music.

He became obsessed with it.

"Keep the heifers," he suddenly proposed to Hermes,

"and in exchange, I shall take the lyre."

Hermes smiled.

He accepted the proposition.

The brothers shook hands.

Henceforth, the two would never be parted.

(slow string music)

And as if to beguile Apollo yet further,

Hermes went over to a bank of reeds,

plucked one out, and carved a flute

on which he began to play another tune.

Dazzled, Apollo could not help proposing another deal.

If his brother gave him this flute,

in return, he would hand over the golden shepherd's staff

he used for grazing his herd.

This time, the child protested.

Out of the question!

It seems Hermes had already developed

an acute business sense.

(gentle music)

"My flute is worth much more than a staff,

"even a golden one.

"I shall only accept if you teach me to predict the future."

"Impossible!" exclaimed Apollo.

And indeed, although a god, Apollo was unable

to transit his power to another.

It was given to him by the Thriae, the bee nymphs,

who lived in the temple of Delphos.

They, and they alone, could school his brother

in the art of prophecy.

"Then so be it," replied Hermes.

"I shall go and see the bee nymphs."

He set off for Delphos, and there,

in the sacred sanctuary of Apollo,

Hermes received his education.

(metallic ringing)

Hermes had become an accomplished god by the time

Zeus summoned him to Olympus.

(suspenseful music)

No sooner had he arrived than the master of Olympus

was showering him with compliments.

He told him he was ingenious, eloquent, and persuasive.

Hermes saw his opportunity.

He implored his father to allow him to become

the god responsible for the security

of divine properties on Olympus in exchange for which

he vowed never to lie again, adding that he was not sure

he would always be able to tell the truth.

Zeus smiled and accepted.

(slithering)

He then gave him a magical staff with two snakes

entwined around it.

The snakes represent the opposition between life and death,

Olympus and hell.

This was the forerunner of the caduceus.

He then added to his outfit a wide-brimmed hat

to protect him from the rain during his missions,

and gold-winged sandals able to transport him

with the speed of the wind.

(wind whistling)

Hermes was ready.

Zeus appointed him as an intercessor between mortals

and the divine.

He thus made him the sole messenger to the great Hades,

lord of the underworld.

(ominous music)

Hermes became the conveyor of souls,

the one named Psychopompos.

And contrary to all expectations Hermes set about

his tasks with unparalleled zeal.

Day after day he could be seen kindly escorting

the dead through the underworld, accompanying them

where no one dared venture.

(low rumbling)

But that was not all.

The young god would also act as a patron of trade,

as well as ensuring the free passage

of the world's travelers and wayfarers.

(gentle orchestral music)

Hermes gave help to merchants and traders.

He advised them, helped them fetch the best prices,

always quick to lend a little of the eloquence

and loquaciousness that would allow them to sell anything

and talk their way out of any situation.

Hermes's reasoning was very often fueled by dishonesty.

Indeed, he acknowledged as much himself.

What matters is not so much telling the truth,

as saying something pleasing.

Hermes then placed himself at Zeus's disposal.

What would he not do to please his father?

On many occasions he helped him outmaneuver the wiles

of the possessive Hera when she turned against

the mistresses of her unfaithful husband,

or his numerous illegitimate children.

Thus was he given the infant Dionysus at birth.

And later, when Paris the Trojan prince

was charged with judging who was the most beautiful

between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite,

it was Hermes, on orders from Zeus,

who brought the three goddesses to him.

(inspiring orchestral music)

As we have seen, while he was still just a newborn baby

Hermes was already up to many tricks.

Later, Zeus's heart became lost to the beautiful Alcmene,

the wife of Amphitryon.

But Alcmene's faithfulness was her prime virtue.

It had to be broken.

Using Hermes as his accomplice, Zeus took on the appearance

of Amphitryon and while he slid into Alcmene's arms,

Hermes ordered the sun to extinguish itself

and not rise the following day.

(emotional orchestral music)

Thus did the ill-fated Alcmene expend her passion

in all innocence in the arms of her so-called husband

for three whole days.

Sometime later, Zeus again called his son to the rescue.

(ominous music)

He had a new mistress, Io.

But Hera, his wife, had turned the unfortunate woman

into a heifer, and made her the captive of Argus, a giant.

At the request of Zeus, Hermes went to the giant.

Now this giant did not have two eyes; he had 100.

But Hermes always had a ruse up his sleeve,

and he managed to put the giant to sleep

by telling him endless stories and mind-boggling tales.

Once he was sure that all of the giant's eyes were closed,

(sword rings)

(footsteps)

(sword strikes)

he cut off his head.

Hermes's reputation spread rapidly throughout Greece,

and he began to appear on wayside markers,

piles of stones called herma.

Topped by a bust of the god, they indicated directions

to be taken, or the names of places.

An indefatigable messenger, Hermes was involved

in everything, and meddled wherever he could.

Athletes, who regarded him as the inventor of racing,

paid tribute to him.

And shepherds, keeping in mind the crimes of his youth,

made him the protector of their herds,

deeming it better to entrust the safety of their animals

to a thieving god then to be robbed by him.

(lilting orchestral music)

But while he readily helped the gods,

Hermes was never their servant.

He was far too impertinent, far too free,

and much too playful for that.

On Olympus he was well-liked,

and much fun could be had with him, but he often irritated.

Always the practical joker, he stole the bow and arrows

of Cupid, the god of love.

He stole Poseidon's trident, Zeus's scepter,

Hephaestus's tongs, and even Aphrodite's magical girdle,

the belt that inspired desire

in mortals and immortals alike.

(emotional orchestral music)

Aphrodite: how to resist her?

We're in Lemnos.

The goddess of beauty was married

to the blacksmith god Hephaestus.

Having discovered that his wife was cheating on him,

he successfully trapped her and her lover Ares,

in a bronze net.

(intense orchestral music)

He then summoned all the divinities of Olympus

so that they may be witness to the adultery.

Hermes was one of those present at the gathering.

Like all males, he was duly beguiled by the goddess's

beauty, and let it be known he would be happy

to be at Ares's place, despite the bronze net.

Aphrodite overheard him.

Flattered, before escaping Olympus,

she offered herself to him for a whole night.

Their embraces brought forth a two-sexed child,

half male, half female, named Hermaphroditus.

Hermaphroditus was neither wholly man, nor wholly woman,

but both at the same time.

Alas, his nature would prevent him enjoying

any form of reciprocal love.

Later, Hermes would seduce the daughter of the princess

Dryope, and together they would produce the god Pan.

Half goat, half man, a god so ugly that his wet nurse

fled at the sight of him.

(anticipatory music)

Secret agent, diplomat, philanderer,

entertainer, thief, an out-and-out rogue.

He was naturally one of the best-loved gods among mortals.

He was capable of deceiving men

just as he was of helping them.

Impossible to tell whether his intention

was to deceive, or help.

Hermes was the messenger of the gods,

but only the very smartest knew how to interpret

his true intentions.

His emblem was two interlaced snakes.

He was a god who combined truth and lies, hell and Olympus.

A god who, by definition, was impenetrable.

He was the inscrutable messenger.

(intense orchestral music)