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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 1569546, member: 5833&quot;]As I remember my mythology textbook, Hermes was originally a god of herds/fertility/increase but mutated into a messenger of the gods, patron of travelers &amp; thieves.&nbsp; In your group I think the goat is there as a way of indicating the rustic setting where nymphs dwell &amp; lonely goatherds hang out.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as I know snakes on his staff are an error caused by confusion with the staff of Asklepios, which has a single snake coiled around it.&nbsp; The caduceus is the staff of a herald/messenger, &amp; has ribbons.&nbsp; I have never encountered a tale of Apollo giving it to him.&nbsp; (But I should look it up.)</p><p><br /></p><p>He is seen with a cockerel more than the other &amp; it represents him symbolically.&nbsp; Have never found an explanation for the association.&nbsp; The 2 I can invent are that the rooster is a herald of the new day &amp; the story of Hermes being conceived, gestated &amp; born in the course of a single night, being born at dawn.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]230431[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The tortoise may also refer to his changing Chelone into one:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]230430[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]230432[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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