Hermes wears them when he comes down through cloud to Calypso’s island carrying Zeus’s order, skimming the waves, arriving on the beach soundlessly. He wears them when he steps into Odysseus’s path in the oak forest on Aeaea, blocking the way to Circe’s house, sandals untouched by the dirt of the trail. The sandals announce him. Calypso knows him before she sees him. Odysseus knows the man in the path is not a man because the leather is too clean. The sandals are how the messenger arrives, and the messenger only ever arrives with news that changes everything.
Hermes's Golden Sandals
Winged sandals. Skim wave-tops. Touch dirt and stay clean. The mark of the messenger when he turns up where he is least wanted.