Who is the father of Hermes?

Who is the father of Hermes? Zeus.

Hermes is conventionally described in Greek mythology as the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and Maia, one of the seven Pleiades. Zeus visited Maia secretly in her cave on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia, and Hermes was born from that union. This makes Hermes one of Zeus’s many divine children and a half-brother of Apollo, Athena, Ares, Artemis, Dionysus, and others.

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes turns Hermes’s birth into the beginning of a trickster tale. Although still an infant, Hermes left his cradle, stole Apollo’s cattle, disguised their tracks, and invented the lyre. When Apollo confronted him, the dispute reached Zeus. Zeus recognized Hermes’s cleverness but ordered him to make peace with Apollo.

Zeus is sometimes confused with Cronus because Cronus is the father of Zeus and the older generation’s ruler. Hades and Poseidon are instead Zeus’s brothers, born to Cronus and Rhea. Thus, among the choices, Zeus is the single standard answer for Hermes’s father.