Hermes

Hermes is the god of land travel, merchants, thieves, literature, athletics, and oratory. It is for his cunning and shrewdness that he is best known. When Hermes was born he broke out of his swaddling clothes and stole his brother Appollo's cattle. He covered his tracks by tying some straw to the cows tails. More notably, as for the relevence to the Odyssey, Hermes guides souls to the Underworld and is the Messenger of the Gods. Hermes is a trickster and tactician much like Odysseus. He favors Odysseus and provides him with the molu flower to resist Circe's charms (X.299-330). He tells Odysseus how to intimidate Circe in a song, which he most probably played on his Lyre, an early stringed instrument Hermes constructed out of a tortoise shell and cow intestines.