Describe the character and personality of hermes in detail. how is his personality revealed in the symbols associated with him. finally, what virtues or qualities does hermes reflect as important to the ancient greeks? .

In a nutshell, one could describe Hermes as a divine messenger. For all the time he spends among mortals, one could argue that Hermes has a stronger bond with mortals than other gods (also he meddles in human affairs, because he is often genuinely interested in helping out men as opposed to other gods who often view men as pawns in their godly affairs. For ex. in the Iliad he helps out Priam from Troy even though he supported the Agamemnon and his army).

In addition, Hermes is portrayed as nimble (after as a divine messenger, he is always in movement), cunning, deceptive, and a trickster. While cunning, deception, and cleverness may not seem as virtues to us, one must note that the Greeks had a different value system than us. Our value systems is derived from Roman ideals (think The Aeneid where the main character, Aeneas, embodied duty, courage, honesty, etc) which stands in contrast with Greek ideals (think The Odyssey, where the main character, Odysseus was a liar, clever, and tried to trick Agamemnon in the Iliad since he wanted to escape service). Thus is in the context of classic Greece, Hermes' deceptiveness and cunning were considered virtues.