Mercury (mythology)

Mercury
God of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery, merchants, thieves
Member of the Dii Consentes
Mercurius by Artus Quellinus the Elder
PlanetMercury
SymbolCaduceus, winged sandals, winged hat, tortoise, ram and rooster
DayWednesday (dies Mercurii)
Personal information
ParentsMaia and Jupiter or Caelus and Dies (Cicero and Hyginus)[1]
ConsortLarunda
ChildrenLares
Equivalents
Greek equivalentHermes
Etruscan equivalentTurms
Egyptian equivalentThoth
Celtic equivalentLugus
Fresco of Mercury-Hermes in Pompeii, 1st century

Mercury (/ˈmɜːrkjʊri/; Latin: Mercurius [mɛrˈkʊrijʊs] ) is a major god in Roman religion and mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery, and thieves; he also serves as the guide of souls to the underworld[2][3] and the "messenger of the gods".

In Roman mythology, he was considered to be either the son of Maia, one of the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas, and Jupiter, or of Caelus and Dies.[1] In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms; both gods share characteristics with the Greek god Hermes. He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand. Similar to his Greek equivalent Hermes, he was awarded a magic wand by Apollo, which later turned into the caduceus, the staff with intertwined snakes.

alt=Illustration of bronze statue of a nude male youth, seated on a rock with one leg outstretched, leaning on the opposite thigh, from the 1908 volume Buried Herculaneum by Ethel Ross Barker; caption reads "Mercury in Repose"
Seated Hermes, excavated at the Villa of the Papyri.
  1. ^ a b Cicero, De natura Deorum 3.56; also Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 4.14.
  2. ^ Glossary to Ovid's Fasti, Penguin edition, by Boyle and Woodard at 343
  3. ^ Rupke, The Religion of the Romans, at 4