The god of impertinence

The naked, charcoal-colored man with red hair who steals the flag from the police station in Greece on a sunny Spring day obviously isn't ordinary; indeed, it could be said - and it would be true - that he is, well, extraordinary. He is none other than Hermes, god of stolen kisses, insolence, erotic freedom, turmoil, sleep, thievery, and messenger to the gods. Hermes is looking for adventure and love, preferably the physical kind. He has been liberated to enchant, to save the world from the corruption of crass cynicism and to resurrect virtues of mischief, curiosity, imagination, and daring...and to fall in love. Unsurprisingly, Hermes' new world seems very, very weird to him - after all, he was kept in chains in a volcanic crater for 2,187 years. Meanwhile, Zeus has been disempowered and escapes to America - where he plays rounds of golf in Missouri - after his wife, Hera, discovers haute couture. Hephaestus, that degenerate, neurotic god of volcanoes, is now "the chief." He has advanced from the blacksmith of old into the commander of human technology and lord of a world driven by computers. Even Ares, the god of war, is subservient to Hephaestus. Even though Hermes finds himself in a strange and confusing age, unsure of why he was freed, this emblem of piratical daring crisscrosses the world in amazement, chasing...who else but a light-skinned beauty. His travels lead him from Europe to Athens (Georgia), to Sparta (Illinois) and, yes, above and beyond human boundaries. On his odyssey, tapping the minds and "having the ear" of brain specialists, rappers, graffiti artists, Hermes realizes that he must supercharge those qualities of impertinence and roguery with godlike impetus. It is the only way he himself can survive. To do so, however, he first has to lead Hephaestus back into the fold of the family...or defeat him...or both.