Help with naming

[dragon32078]

Hello Everyone,

I am hoping you may post a name of a Goddess. This Goddess will be Hermes' wife. I am a little bit of a mythology buff, but I am loathe to admit, I don't the know the name of Hermes' wife. I recall Hermes and Aphrodite have a child together, whom has both genders, but I doubt Aphrodite is Hermes' wife. This doubt stems from the fact that Aphrodite lusts after Ares and is married to Hephaestus.

After doing a search for Hermes, I found his wiki, which says he had several consorts. Does this mean he did not have a wife?

Well in the case he does not have a wife, what name do you think would befit her? I look forward to reading your responses, and will return your favor with a story.

[Sorniyamiro]

The questions about Hermes'/Mercurius' (both are the same) mythologies are actually very difficult to answer clearly, because he is one of the most traditioned Gods. There are even numerous Germanic adaptions where he has entirely different wifes from different mythological origins. I think you should use that free hand and make your own story, too! ;D

In Roman and most Greek traditions he did not have a wife, but instead many lovers, mainly nymphs. It was very common that Gods had children without being married. Such a child would be Hermaphroditos in the case you mentioned (A combination of "Hermes" and "Aphrodite" if some haven't noticed yet! ;D).
If you have further questions, you can of course ask them. I study Latin philology in my 2nd master semester at the moment, so seeking information would be in my own interest as well;3

[dragon32078]

I recently heard about a woman here in the chat room. This woman rules over a river in the underworld. The river has the ability of making people forget. So as a chat room person suggested, Hermes wife could be this woman whom controls a river of forgetfulness. Given her ability to control the river, explains why people are unable to remember her name.

So, dear Sorniyamiro, what is the name of this woman?

[Sorniyamiro]

Actually, all lakes, streams etc. in ancient mythology were also Gods. The river you mean is the river "Lethe", which simply means "forgetting" in ancient Greek, but it was at the same time also a personified daimon (a sort of ghost-god thing, like nymphs). I'd suggest that you make your own myth though: simpy inventing a Goddess that actually rules about forgetfulness. It would also not make too much sense otherwise because noone ever escapes from the underworld to even be able to tell. In my memory I can recall just 4 people who managed to escape: Hercules, Orpheus, Aeneas and together with him Sibylle (of Cumae).

I think "Lethe" sounds a bit boring though. If you used the opposite "Aletheia" it would make a nice word play I guess and it sounds better (Means something "unforgetfulness" and more modern: "truth")

[dragon32078]

You forgot a fifth, but the fifth is not human, and technically I doubt Hercules is actually considered a person. The fifth is Hermes. He is well known for delivering souls to the underworld. So clearly he needs to be able to leave Hades and the underworld otherwise how would he be able to deliver souls to these two places?