4.2.7: Hermes and Autolycus

Zeus’ acceptance of Athene’s craftiness establishes the foundation for Hermes’ introduction and acceptance to the pantheon. Born in a cave, rather than upon Olympus, Hermes demonstrates his first acts of trickery shortly after his birth, feeding both his his appetite and ingenuity by hunting a tortoise and then transforming its shell into the first lyre; these acts he follows with stealing and butchering the sacred cattle of Apollo, covering his crime by reversing the tracks of the cattle. When caught, he pleads innocent by virtue of his infancy. After all, he argues, how could a baby steal, butcher and consume a cow, much less a whole herd? Finding the episode comical, Zeus dismisses the crime, offers as recompense to his older son the first lyre, and insists the two become friends. Hermes, ever mindful of his father’s sovereignty, finds a place in Olympus as herald and messenger of the gods, patron of travelers and thieves (human tricksters), and conveyer of the dead to Hades. Serving the Olympians in these ways, he personifies the pathway between the worlds of the immortal, the mortal living and the dead. In this employment, his tendencies are used in socially acceptable, even beneficial ways.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Hermes, messenger of the Olympus, wearing a chlamys and winged sandals, holds a kerykeion. He is depicted in action, running while looking backward as an indication of his duplicitous nature. Tondo from an Attic black-figure kylix attributed to Oltos, dating to c. 530 BCE. (CC-BY SA 4.0 International license, via Wikimedia)

It is through the line of Hermes that we link back to Odysseus, via Hermes’ son, Autolycus, who is the maternal grandfather of Odysseus. Autolycus [ow-TŌL-ee-kus], whose name means “true wolf,” lives up to his reputation as a thief and rogue. Born from the deceitful act of Hermes, who used his staff to lull the virgin Chioné to sleep before preying upon her, Autolycus inherits the genetic code of thievery and manipulation from his father:

“But Hermes brooks delay not: with his rod,

“Compelling sleep, he strokes the virgin's face;

“Beneath the potent touch she sinks, and yields

“Without resistance to his amorous force.

. . . .

“When its full time the womb matur'd had seen,

“Autolycus was born; the crafty seed

“Of the wing'd-footed god; acute of thought

“To every shade of theft; from his sire's art

“Degenerate nought; white he was wont to make

“Appear as black; and black from white produce. (Ovid 147-48)

With the ability and desire to make black appear as white, and white appear as black, the audience knows the mind of Autolycus: a man who derives great pleasure from manipulating others. His infamous exploits included cattle theft, and like his father who stole from his half-brother, Autolycus steals from a neighbor, and renders the cattle invisible via further trickery. Yet his acts had none of the charisma, nor the beneficial side effects of his father’s deeds. Thus when he attempts the same deceit upon a more cunning opponent, Sisyphus, he finds himself outmatched. Sisyphus is able to reclaim his cattle due to an identifying mark placed upon their hooves. Not content with the return of his cattle, several authors, including Ovid, Plutarch and Euripides, show Sisyphus avenging himself upon Autolycus’ virgin daughter, Anticleia, raping her on the eve of her wedding to Laertes. Thus, Sisyphus, not Laertes, becomes the biological father of Odysseus, an issue Odysseus is taunted with in the Odyssey. Sisyphus, for all his machinations, inevitably offends the gods and is doomed to an eternity of pushing a boulder up a hill, an effort which is only rewarded by the boulder rolling downhill again. The meaning behind his fate has become a widely used reference for a painful but futile act: a Sisyphean effort. Unlike Sisyphus, Odysseus remains in the favor of the gods by focusing his trickery–save for Polyphemus–upon mortals, and paying homage to the gods through sacrifice, and in return receives the patronage of Athene and protection of Zeus.