At daybreak Hermes fed the cows well and found a shelter for them. When an old man working in a luxuriant vineyard noticed Hermes driving the cattle, the infant god told him not to tell, promising him a good harvest of grapes and much wine. In the night, he cut off from the herd fifty head and cleverly made them walk backwards, their heads facing him, while he himself walked straight ahead, wearing sandals of wicker that he had woven to disguise his tracks. Very soon Hermes became intent on other pursuits he craved meat and devised a scheme for stealing the cattle of Apollo. In no time at all, he tuned the lyre and was singing beautiful songs in honor of his father and his mother. He seized and cut up the tortoise and used the hollow shell, along with reeds, an ox’s hide, and strings of sheep gut, to make the first seven-stringed lyre. As soon as Hermes left the cave where he was born, he encountered a tortoise and quickly devised a plan. By midday he was playing the lyre, and in the evening he stole the cattle of Apollo. Zeus joined in love with the beautiful nymph MAIA (MAEA) in a luxurious cave, and she bore the god HERMES (MERCURY). The charming, amusing, much admired, and lengthy Hymn to Hermes (4) tells the story of the god’s birth and childhood.
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