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to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (ll. 496–499), the gifts which Apollo actually gave Hermes in exchange for the lyre were a shining whip and the tutelage of herdsmanship. But, according to the same hymn (ll. 513–532), Apollo later feared that Hermes might steal both the lyre and his bow from him and requested Hermes to swear not to do so. Hermes took the oath, whereupon Apollo promised various things to Hermes, of which however one only was a concrete object, namely the caduceus, saying:

Although there is nothing in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes to indicate that this staff was the staff of a herald, or that Hermes became a herald, nevertheless, just after the passage quoted, Apollo (l. 539) addresses Hermes as, which shows that in the mind of the writer the staff in question was at least distinctive of Hermes. Similarly in the Odyssey is twice used, each time as a distinctive epithet of Hermes; but, where the  itself is spoken of, it is not by any means described as a herald's staff. It is mentioned in three passages of Homer (Il. XXIV. 343, Od. V. 47, and Od. XXIV. 2), and in the first two the words are the same:—