Hermes is a complex old god:
- friendly,
- helpful,
- sneaky, and
- cunning.
It should come as no surprise that the thief Autolycus and the cunning hero of the Odyssey are Hermes' descendants. Autolycus was Hermes' son. Autolycus' daughter Anticlea married Laertes and bore Odysseus. [See Names in the Odyssey.]
Perhaps Hermes' most famous offspring is the god Pan through his mating with an unnamed Dryops. (In the tradition of messy genealogies, other accounts make Pan's mother Penelope and Theocritus' Syrinx poem makes Odysseus Pan's father.)
Hermes also had two unusual offspring with Aphrodite, Priapus and Hermaphroditus.
Other offspring include Oenomaus' charioteer, Myrtilus, who cursed Pelops and his family. [See House of Atreus.]
