The incipit of a column about 'nocturnal worriers' in the Kansas City Star:

Greek legend had it that Hermes, the god of cunning and theft, would swoop down over rooftops at night and sow strange and troubling dreams into the heads of sleeping citizens. In the morning, no one could remember their dreams in detail, but many were filled worry and dread.

“Hermes has visited you!” was the rebuke to anyone in a gloomy mood.

Those goofy Greeks. What did they have to worry about? The thorniest issue for ancient Greeks and Romans was whether they would run out of baby names that ended in “us.” (Romulus, Theodosius, Asparagus, Promiscuous.)

There were no house payments back then, no college loans. You never had to think about privatization of social security or suffer dinner parties where everyone at the table is discussing the last episode of “Desperate Housewives.” We're talking nightmares here.

If ancient Greeks were alive today, they'd know what real worry and gloom are made of.

Hermes sneaks into my house all the time.Around 4 a.m. I am wakened by ghostly questions that come out only at night. They are harmless apparitions, mostly — imaginary quandaries that pose no threat, spirits without bodies that materialize for no reason but to disturb my sleep. They cut into my dreams like a scythe through hay. ...

I realize it's all tongue in cheek, but it highlighted a strange lacuna (I think) in my knowledge (lack thereof) ... I had never realized that Hermes was associated with dreams! Of course it makes perfect sense as ancilliary to his pyschopompic role too ...