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| | About the god Hermes |
 | | But his principal character is that of the divine herald (keryx), in which capacity he is regularly represented as wearing the broad hat (petasos) with which Greek wayfarers kept the sun out of their eyes, and carrying a herald's staff (kerykeion, caduceus). |
 | | All this is explicable enough if we suppose that he was and long continued to be the deity of a rather simple and backward folk, as we know the Arkadians were, but developed to the extent of having many functions, including the protection of travellers in wild and ill-policed country. |
 | | The legend of his birth is preserved in one of the `Homeric' Hymns, which handles the subject with just that good-natured humour which befits it; for few Greek gods mind a harmless joke or so, and certainly Hermes does not. |
| enargea.org /homyth/myths/Hermes.html |
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