It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
This delightful figure of the #Roman god #Mercury is holding a purse and he has winged feet and wears his winged helmet. He was seen as protecting the pay of Roman soldiers, so this figure may have belonged to a soldier.
May he protect your wages too!
🏛 Hermes-Mercurius found in Barnhill, Perth, #Scotland
"‘So should we not address a prayer to #Mars the Comrade [...] Appoint ten representatives to accompany me; that will suffice to attack the nearest village, and enable me to bring back a meal fit for Salian priests.’"
Apuleius, The Golden Ass 7.10
"You'll find sheep and cattle grazing there; they belong to a god, all-seeing, all-hearing Helios. If you leave these unharmed--if you set your mind only to return--all of you may still reach Ithaka, though with much misery. But if you harm them, then I foretell destruction alike for your ship and for your crew."
Homer, #Odyssey
""[The Argive river] Inakhos was witness to both, when the heavy bronze pikes of Mykenes resisted the ivy and deadly fennel, when #Perseus sickle in hand gave way to #Bakkhos with his wand, and fled before the fury of Satyrs cyring Euoi."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25 104
🏛 #Dionysos and a satyr, possibly his lover Ampelos
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"#Paphos, garlanded harbour of the softhaired Erotes (Loves), landingplace of Aphrodite when she came up out of the waves, where is the bridebath of the seaborn goddess."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13.435
🏛️ Aphrodite terracotta statuette, ca 3rd century BCE, Christie's collection
A #spintria is a small bronze or brass Roman coin depicting a sexual act and a number on the other side. They were probably used as locker tokens in Roman baths, where there were erotic frescoes in the changing rooms depicting similar sex acts.
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"Ganymedes, who was the loveliest born of the race of mortals, and therefore the gods caught him away to themselves, to be Zeus' wine-pourer."
Homer, Iliad 20.232
🏛️ #Zeus and #Ganymedes, red-figure vase painting, 5th century BCE
"May you [#Luna, the Moon] wear a shining face and, the clouds all scattered, fare on with undimmed horns; when you drive your car through the nightly skies."
Seneca, Phaedra 417
"To Helios (Sol), Fumigation from Frankincense and Manna. Hear, golden Titan, whose eternal eye with matchless sight illumines all the sky. Native, unwearied in diffusing light, and to all eyes the object of delight"
Orphic Hymn 8 to Helios
🏛 #Helios, Roman silver and gold finger ring, dated ca 2nd century CE
"He [Dionysos] was accompanied [...] by a personal attendant and caretaker, Seilenos, who was his adviser and instructor in the most excellent pursuits and contributed greatly to the high achievements and fame of Dionysos."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.4.3
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"I call upon great, pure, resounding, illustrious, ethereal and blazing Zeus,
Whose racing fire shines though the air.
With an ear-splitting clap your light flashes through the clouds,
O horrid, wrathful, pure, and invincible god.
Upon you I call, lord of lightening, begetter of all and great king,
To be kind and bring a sweet end to my life."
Orphic Hymn 20
#Selene, the Moon, peeks down from the heavens on her nightly course and sometimes she sees handsome men from up there. For #Endymion, she descended from the skies to have a better look at him in his sleep. Creepy or romantic? What do you think?
🏛️ Selene and Endymion #fresco in the House of Ara Massima, #Pompeii
Helios, the Sun, rises another day, illuminating a #NewYear. #Helios was associated with the turn of the year as he passes through the constellations of the zodiac:
"The golden #Sun [Sol-Helios] rules his circuit, portioned out in fixed divisions, through the world's twelve constellations."
Virgil, Georgics 1.231
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
A premature #PhallusThursday for good luck in this #NewYears week: a young man carrying a sacrificial basket passes by a herm, a simple statue of #Hermes with a head and a #phallus at the appropriate height. He gives the phallus a rub for good luck. May your #NewYear2024 be happy and full of joy!
"But having gone down into Hades because of his wife & seeing what sort of things were there, he did not continue to worship #Dionysos, because of whom he was famous, but he thought #Helios to be the greatest of the gods, Helios whom he also addressed as Apollon."
Eratosthenes, Placings Among the Stars 24
🏛 Detail of a #fresco from #Pompeii, today in the Napoli MAN
Hermes holding his baby brother Dionysos, possibly on their way to the nymphs of Nysa, the nurses of Dionysos. He may have been holding a cluster of grapes, teasing or playing with the baby.
🏛️ Baby Dionysos in the arms of #Hermes, his older brother. From #Olympia, traditionally attributed to Praxiteles and dated to the 4th century BCE.
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"The ancients record in their myths that Priapos was the son of #Dionysos and #Aphrodite and they present a plausible argument for this lineage; for men when under the influence of wine find their members tense and inclined to the pleasures of love."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.6.1
🏛️ Terracotta figurine from Myrina dated 150-100 BCE
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"The Father of men and gods [Zeus] gave you birth remote from men and secretly from white-armed Hera. There is a certain Nysa, a mountain most high and richly grown with woods, far off in Phoinike."
Homeric Hymn 1 to Dionysos
🏛️ Attic red-figure volute krater by the Altamura Painter, detail of #Zeus entrusting baby #Dionysos to the Nymphai, Ferrara, Museo Nazionale di Spina
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"#Mercurius [Hermes] snatched him from the fire and gave him to Nysus [Seilenos] to be reared. In Greek he is called #Dionysos."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 179
"He took her hand and spoke thus to her: 'Come, my darling, let us go to bed and take our delight together. [...]'
And sleep with him was a welcome thought to her. So they went to the bed and there lay down."
Homer, Odyssey 8
🏛️ #Mars & #Venus on a silver cup from the House of Menander in #Pompeii, 1st century CE