Speaks of his mother Maia, the Atlantis who bore to Zeus the illustrious Hermes, the herald of the immortals In the Homeric poems, also, there is no trace of serpents entwining the wand in the manner represented in works of art. Even in the late Home ridian hymn the wand (which was Apollo's sheep staff) is described as a golden three-leaved innocu ous rod. The epithet of three-leaved is peculiarly applicable to the three-pointed symbol of Dharma, so conspicuous an ornament on the Sanchi gateways of this volume.