Authors Electric

Last month, I wrote a piece on my favourite god, Hermes, the god of thieves, liars, athletes, scholars, merchants, the home, dreamers and travellers– even those travelling to the next world. Oh, and all those of us who earn our living by words. I also discovered that the worship of the Olympian Gods is no longer a thing of the past. Like Druidism, it’s been revived, as ‘Hellenism’ or ‘Hellenic Worship.’ While skipping about on the internet, I happened on a forum where present-day worshippers swop tales of how Hermes has helped them, and exchange photos of their home shrines. There are useful tips. For instance, suppose you are an American teen, part of an orthodox Christian household, but secretly worship Zeus and Aphrodite. You want to set up a shrine to Them, but can’t face dealing with the uproar that would cause. What can you do? Well, make yourself a ‘traveller’s shrine.’ This is a lidded tin that will fit in a pocket or bag. Inside the lid, put your image of the pagan...

Writers all: Bow your heads and have your offering of wheat cakes and olive oil ready. Here, I introduce you to your patron God.  Herald and Messenger Back in the day, Our Hermes— or Mercury, if you prefer— was a busy lad. He was the Gods’ Messenger, or Herald, divine representative of all those mortal heralds with the fraught job of carrying messages along dangerous roads, to equally dangerous people who might be extremely pissed off by what they had to say. As the Gods’ Messenger, Hermes had to give the hard word to characters even worse than the average human king: to giants, witches, monsters and other Gods (who could be so difficult). Hermes was a diplomat, a fast, smooth talker, a charmer, a deft bender of the truth. As no doubt human heralds were. Each herald carried a version of the God’s snake-wrapped staff, as a sign of the God's protection and a reminder that you really did not want to mess with the Olympian Gods. (You could end up as a shrubbery, or an interesting ...