The old Greek wisdom says that „Hermes leads the way or leads astray.“ If I suffer an accidental loss, that is Hermes the thief, and if there is an accidental gain, that is Hermes the luck-bringer. But, gain or loss, what is constant with Hermes and with Eshu is the presence of accident. Chance is hardly mysterious in such religions; what’s mysterious is that there are people who deny it exists, who have no trickster figure, and who have saddled themselves with all sorts of intractable philosophical problems because their cosmology doesn’t fit this world, the world as it is.
Lewis Hyde, Trickster makes this world