Statue of Hermes from the Gymnasium of Messene. A marble copy from the 1st C.AD after a bronze original of early 4th C. BC, attributed to the Greek Polycleitan school. Hermes was the son of Zeus. He was god of many things including travel and travellers, athletics, and cunning of liars and thieves. One of the cleverest and most mischievous of the Olympian gods, he was the patron of shepherds, invented the lyre, and was, above all, the herald and messenger of Mt. Olympus so that he came to symbolise the crossing of boundaries in his role as a guide between the two realms of gods and humanity. To the Romans, the god was known as Mercury.