“Hermes and Hestia” Revisited: Hermes ἀκάκητα and the Funerary Fire

The paper focuses on some features of the Greek god Hermes in order to revisit Jean Pierre Vernant’s interpretation of the couple Hestia-Hermes. By integrating the comparative data about Hermes and the Vedic divine figures associated with the element ‘fire’, the polarity unmovable (Hestia) vs. movable (Hermes) may ultimately apply to two complementary aspects of a ‘fire-deity,’ namely: the static hearth vs. the dynamic messenger / psychopompos (Hermes). Specifically, I focus on the role of Hermes in Homer and on his epithet ἀκάκητα (‘?’, of Hermes and Prometheus). I propose that the form means ‘burning togather’ or, possibly, ‘hungry’ (to PIE *kenk ‘to dry, burn’). The semantics of the word thus suits both Hermes and Prometheus, who, just like Agni and Mātariśvan, are connected with the discovery of ‘fire-sticks’ and the invention of the “sacrificial share.” Latter achievement is in turn associated with the consumption of meat, a distinctive trait of funeral Agni. Hestia and Hermes’ roles and characteristics are thus comparable to the static and dynamic dimensions of Agni.