Zeus and Maia: Parentage of Hermes

Catalogue ID: 02-olympian-gods/072-zeus-maia-parentage-hermes-hesiodic

Cycle: Olympian gods — Zeus’s loves / birth of Hermes

Version line: Hesiodic / Homeric Hymn — Maia in the cave of Cyllene

Sources: Hesiod, *Theogony* 938–939; Homeric Hymn to Hermes 1–9, 17–19; cf. Apollodorus, *Library* 3.10.2

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/02-olympian-gods/072-zeus-maia-parentage-hermes-hesiodic.md

Characters

Artemis — father; visits Maia by night
Athena — newborn herald and trickster
Atlas — maternal grandfather
Maia — Atlas’s daughter; nymph of Cyllene; mother of Hermes

Places

Mount Cyllene — Maia’s cave; Hermes’ birthplace

Themes

Narrative

Hesiod lists Hermes among Zeus’s offspring: Zeus mingles with Maia, daughter of Atlas, in the hollow cave; she bears Hermes, herald of the gods. The Homeric Hymn opens on the same union: Zeus and Maia in the Cyllenian cave by night while Hera sleeps; Maia shuns the blessed gods’ throng; at dawn she bears the clever child who will invent the lyre and steal Apollo’s cattle that same day. This entry catalogues the genealogical and hymnic birth-frame alone—Atlas’s daughter, secret cave, herald’s destiny—apart from the cattle theft already treated as 02/003.