Hi Ray,

<snip>

>My present question has to do with the following:
>
>>portraits of Hermes; for example, when he puts into Hermes' mouth the
>>cynical epigram that a man's country is wherever he can do business, he
>
>I presume that it would be anachronistic to interpret the phrase "wherever
>he can do business"  in modern economic sense.  I would appreciate comment
>on the various interpretations that one might put on the original Greek (or
>is it only available from Latin translation?).
>
>Thank you,
>
>Ray

Hermes is the god of 'truth' so that is why the term 'hermetic' or
'hermeneutic' is used today. So the allusion to doing business is put into
Hermes mouth as a comment about the audience. The Ancient Greeks were great
traders and travellers...they had mastered the arts of navigation. The
really import is though with the 'friend of mankind' Hermes who is the
craftsman god.

"The root <kleptein> "steal", which in Homerica Greek has connotations of
magical trickery, is also used to denote technical proficiency: if
"stealthy" is taken as the English equivalent of the word epiklopos (the
same word to describe the stealthy disposition Hermes gave to Pandora), we
find Homer saying "a smooth talker and stealthy in the use of words," and
"stealthy in the use of the bow. The latter passage shows that the aptness
of the root as applied to technical skill derives from its basic meaning of
'secret, mysterious action': Odysseus' skill with the bow is uncanny (Norman
O. Brown. Hermes...)."

Doing business is possible in any country where there are people, but during
the late classical period of ancient Greece, Hermes was the what the early
Greek poet says:

"The Father called him the Clever One because he excelled all the blessed
gods and mortal men in gainful crafts and stealthy skills (Supra note)."

The image is one too of 'grasping' the truth. The truth must be snatched now
before it is lost for ever. That is how the transcendental ego works. The
self that through consciousness of the objects (differentia) 'grasps' the
truth. The truth is understood immediately like a direct intuition. 

Also Hermes is the messenger. He rides a chariot, and has a bow so that he
can strike and take the truth quickly like a hunter. 

John Foster
"In Arizona I remember soft fluffy clouds catching colors reflected
everywhere. Long narrow clouds trailing off into the horizons."



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