Hermes Images in The Matrix

The Matrix (1999) weaves together elements of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and archetypal characteristics of the Greek god Hermes to create its main character. Neo/Thomas Anderson, the protagonist of The Matrix closely follows the path of Campbell's Hero. This rite of passage of a "chosen" hero is popular in science fiction, and defines the plot in several films: Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (1977), Paul Atreides in the novel and film adaptation Dune (1984), Alex Rogan in The Last Starfighter (1984), (and possibly Cale in the upcoming summer animated science fiction film Titan A.E.).

Neo, the "new" one, begins the film restless and searching for the answer to an elusive feeling. He is called to the quest by Trinity, who comes to warn him that he's in danger. The agents challenge him and send him on his way toward separation from his own illusionary world of the Matrix. He meets his mentor Morpheus, who gives him the choice to accept the quest or return to the old world. His acceptance--he takes the red pill--precipitates complete separation from the old world, as he is cast out of the physical reality of the Matrix (discarded as dead from the machine), and is reborn into the real world of humanity. In the new world of the living, with a company of companions, he undergoes training for the tests to come. He receives more direction from a mentor in the form of the Oracle. He confronts the Matrix to save Morpheus, and overcomes the agents, successfully transcending the test and reaching his destiny. He returns from the ordeal with new knowledge of his abilities and the realization of Trinity's love (in a nice reversal of Sleeping Beauty as she awakens him from the sleep of death with a kiss). His final scene is a challenge to the old order, as he announces that he will remake the world, completing the Journey.

The Matrix deals with the dichotomy of worlds, upper and lower, physical reality and interior landscape of the mind. The illusionary dream world of the Matrix, run by the all controlling machines, stands in sharp contrast to the harsh devastated world of humanity. The upper sunlit world of the machine seems more human than the Underworld, Hades-like, in which humans physically live. The question becomes "which world is more real?" The agent, as a representative of an almost Olympian power, describes an earlier simulation applied to humanity--that of a harmonious happy world, very much like the Elysian Fields of the Underworld, which living humans rejected. The film uses more modern references to split worlds, in Alice in Wonderland (the White Rabbit guide and Neo blending with the mirror, as he goes into the looking glass) and The Wizard of Oz in Cypher's comment about leaving Kansas behind. These two worlds and their boundaries provide the landscape for the Hero's Journey.

Throughout this transition Neo displays traits that suggest Hermes as a template.

In the early scenes in the Matrix, the agent describes Neo as having two distinct lives, as Anderson, the programmer for a reputable computer company, and as Neo, the hacker, who has broken every regulation that exists. We see him selling illegal software as he searches the network--a career in keeping with the patron of thieves. Neo is clever, innovative, and something of a trickster as he adapts to his changing reality. Morpheus points out that it is his ability to think and act outside the rules that will give him the advantage against the agents.

Hermes is the communicator between the worlds, between humanity and the gods, who escorts the dead to the Underworld and communicates with Olympus. In similar fashion, Neo is the ultimate communicator between the worlds. He becomes the patron of the crossroads and the guide between the worlds. He crosses all boundaries, and finally controls them. The film offers an array of images of communication devices of different time periods, cell phones, old phones, phone booths, ultramodern plugin systems to the computer--jack decks of cyberpunk fiction, 1950s televisions sets, banks of monitors to track the Matrix, and simulations to represent variations on reality. Neo carries a cell phone as the primary communication symbol, like Hermes carries the serpent-bound staff as the messenger and herald of the gods.

Hermes is numbered among the gods of sleep and dreams, and of messages from the gods. Neo's mentor is named for Morpheus, one of the minor Greek gods of dreams, the son of sleep, and the nephew of death. Both Hermes and Morpheus appear to mortals in prophetic dreams. Morpheus' symbols include poppies. In the modern vision, Morpheus appears to Neo in the dream of the Matrix and offers poppies in the form of the red and blue pills. The Oracle, another Greek element, guides the hero, giving the prophesy that is needed, not necessarily the actual future.

Neo displays the element of changebility visually presented in mirrors, reflections, and quicksilver. When Neo takes the red pill and touches the mirror, the quicksilver sticks and engulfs him. The image of his transformation, his disconnection from the machine world, is becoming the mirror. We watch him reflected in many surfaces, that mirror, Morpheus's mirrored shades, car windows and glass, and the questionably existent bending spoon. The reflection is always changing and distorted, until we see, in the final scene, the world reflected in his slightly mirrored lenses.

Ultimately Neo is chosen for a very Hermes-like characteristic--speed. As messenger for the gods, Hermes is notorious for speed. Neo develops the ability to move with the speed of the agents. In the kung fu training scenes, in the battle with the Agent in the subway station, and in the final resolution, he flies liked the winged god.

The Hermes elements of ingenuity, speed, and communication provide Neo with the ability to realize his place between the worlds and his power to remake it.

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The Matrix. dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Warner Bros., 1999.

Parada, Carlos. "Hermes". Greek Mythology Links, 2000.