The earliest written record of Hermes appears in Linear B inscriptions from Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos dating to the Bronze Age Mycenaean period. Scribes wrote his name as e-ma-a (Hermas) alongside goddesses like Potnija, Posidaeja, Diwja, Hera, Pere, and Ipemedeja.
Scholars derive the modern name Hermes from Greek herma meaning stone heap. R.S.P. Beekes rejects a Proto-Indo-European origin suggesting instead a Pre-Greek root while other theories link the word to Indo-European roots meaning to bind or put together.
In Archaic Greece artists depicted Hermes as a matured bearded man dressed as a traveler herald and shepherd. Classical and Hellenistic periods shifted depictions toward young athletic men lacking facial hair with statues created by Phidias Myron Praxiteles showing either beardless Logios Hermes holding baby Dionysus in his arms.
All Athenian hermai were vandalized when the night Athenian fleet set sail for Syracuse because it was believed work saboteurs from the Syracuse anti-war faction committed the act. Socrates pupil Alcibiades was suspected involvement charge eventually led execution 16 years later corrupted failed guide moral corruption Thucydides recorded events.
Carl Jung considered role messenger realms guide underworld made him god unconscious mediator conscious unconscious parts mind guide inner journeys emphasized central practice medieval alchemy symbolic psychological process individuation study phenomenon synchronicity together Pan Dionysus identified archetype healer ancient Greeks ascribed healing magic López-Pedraza protector psychotherapy McNeely god healing arts abnormal psychology Samuels 1986 states considers narcissistic disorder lends positive beneficial aspect represents good bad Christopher Booker all roles revealed guide observer transition.