But the kêryx career began as a humble cook for the tribe, a skill Hermes demonstrates in his cooked meat offerings on the Twelve Gods Altar set in place in 522 BC by Peisistratos III in Athens.
According to Pausanias, Ceryx was the youngest son of Eumolpus,[4] one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis and a founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
In Homer’s time, ceryx was a profession of trusted attendants or retainers of a chieftain.
The role of ceryces /ˈsɛrɪˌsiːz/ expanded, however, to include acting as inviolable messengers between states, even in time of war, proclaiming meetings of the council, popular assembly, or court of law, reciting there the formulas of prayer, and summoning persons to attend.
Hermes, himself the ceryx of the gods, was their patron and carried the caduceus (Latin corruption of Ancient Greek kerykeion), the herald’s staff.