It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Please, Hermes, be my guide today! 💙
"Finerod #Hermes departed, fanning his light wings, and the flat of his extended shoes oared him as quick as the winds of heaven in their course."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3.373
🏛 #Fresco, House of the Ancient Hunt, #Pompeii, 1st century CE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
I need Hermes' help today as the god of travellers and the god of orators. Hear me, sweet child of Maia, and guide me. 💙
"You who make your way with winged feet, who delights
In the sounding lyre and the gleaming wrestling
You through whose teaching the tongue learnt eloquence"
Ovid, Fasti V
🏛 Ptolemaic #Hermes relief, 120–30 BCE, found in Abuqir, #Egypt
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"He [Hermes] cast upon the dogs which were guarding them [the guard dogs of the cattle of Apollon] a stupor and strangles, so that the dogs forgot the cows and lost the power of barking." #Hesiod, The Great Eoiae Frag 16
🏛 Red-Figure Kylix depicting #Hermes with a dog by the Iliupersis Painter, ca 375–350 BCE, #Apulia in Magna Graecia
Have a beautiful Day of Ares aka Mars' Day aka aka Tuesday 🗡️
"If you only would bear in mind the fate of Ixion [who tried to rape Hera], you would never have dreamed of falling in love with beings so much above you. For he, you remember is bent and stretched across the heaven like a wheel."
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 6.40
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"May Maia's son [#Hermes], as he rightfully should, lend his aid [to Orestes], for no one can better sail a deed on a favouring course, when he would do so. By his mysterious words he brings darkness over men's eyes by night and by day he is not clearer at all"
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 811
🏛 #Mercurius, Museo Archeologico Nazionale delle Marche, Ancona
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"He [Odysseus] found the Phaiakian lords and rulers pouring libations from their cups to the keen-sighted Radiant One (Argeiphontes) [Hermes] to whom by custom they poured libation last when they turned their thoughts to the night's rest."
Homer, Odyssey 7.137
🏛 #Hermes as messenger, pouring a libation, ca. 460 BCE, Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden
📸 Jona Lendering
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"#Zeus himself [...] commanded that glorious Hermes [...] should be the appointed messenger to #Hades, who, though he takes no gift, shall give him no mean prize."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 560
🏛 #Hermes on a Column Drum from the Temple of Artemis, #Ephesos
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"[Apollon:] "You, #Hermes, my blood brother, born of the same father, watch over him [Orestes, hounded by the Erinyes]; true to your name, be his guide (pompaios), shepherding this suppliant of mine."
Aeschylus, Eumenides 89
🏛 Hermes Farnese, detail, 1st century CE Roman copy of a 4th century BCE Greek original attributed to #Praxiteles
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Hermes is the god who is thought most to care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts it in the #Iliad: ‘Son was he of Phorbas, the dearest of Trojans to Hermes, rich in flocks, for the god vouchsafed him wealth in abundance.’"
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.3.4
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Muse, sing of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Kyllene and Arkadia rich in flocks, the luck-bringing, messenger of the gods whom Maia bare, the rich-tressed Nymph."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes
🏛 Marble statue of #Hermes, 1st century CE Roman copy of a famous type created in the school of the Greek sculptor #Praxiteles in the 4th century BCE.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"When #Hera detected the affair she turned Kallisto into a bear, and #Artemis, to please Hera, shot the bear. #Zeus sent #Hermes with orders to save the child [Arkas] that Kallisto bore in her womb."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.3.6
🏛 Hermes and Baby Arkas, 360-350 BCE silver coin from Pheneos in Arkadia
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"He [Odysseus] found the Phaiakian lords and rulers pouring libations from their cups to the keen-sighted Radiant One (Argeiphontes) [#Hermes] to whom by custom they poured libation last when they turned their thoughts to the night's rest."
Homer, #Odyssey 7.137
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"And he charged #Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argos, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord #Zeus."
Hesiod, Works & Days 54
🏛 Red-figure kylix, by the Tarquinia Painter, dated ca. 470—460 BCE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"My own opinion is that #Hermes gave #Amphion these gifts, both the [magical] lyre and the headband, because he was overcome by love for him.
And the chlamys he wears, perhaps that also came from Hermes; for its colour does not remain the same but changes and takes on all the hues of the rainbow."
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1.10
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"When sent by Polydectes, son of Magnes, to the Gorgones, he [Perseus] received from Mercurius [#Hermes], who is thought to have loved him, talaria and petasus, and, in addition, a helmet which kept its wearer from being seen by an enemy."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2.12
🏛 #Perseus and Hermes, detail, Bell Krater, Jatta, 400-375 BCE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Engendered form the sea-foam, we are told she [#Aphrodite] became the mother by Mercurius [#Hermes] of the second Cupidus [literally Eros but probably referring to Hermaphroditos]."
Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 21-23
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
A man was chopping wood by a river when he dropped his axe into the water. #Hermes took pity on him and presented a golden axe, then a silver axe, asking each time whether it was his. The man said no. Then Hermes showed him the lost axe and when he recognized it, Hermes gifted him all of the axes.
Aesop, Fables 474
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#OTD, 15 May, it's the #Mercuralia, a Roman festival in honour of Mercurius in his function as god of commerce. This year it coincides with the birthday of Apollon. #Hermes and #Apollon are half-brothers and love each other dearly:
"And Hermes loved the son of Leto continually, even as he does now."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"At once he fastened under his feet the immortal sandals of lovely gold that carried him, swift as airy breezes, over ocean and over boundless earth. The strong Radiant One began his flight; over Pieria he passed, then form the upper air dipped down to the sea and sped on over the waves like the seagull."
Homer, Odyssey
🏛 #Hermes engraved on a gold ring, 4th century BCE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#MerMay is upon us and I'm starting out with a vase painting of #Hermes with the sea goddess Thetis, leader of the fifty daughters of Nereus & mother of Achilles. In the scene shown, she might be on her way to Olympos, summoned by Zeus to persuade #Achilles to return Hektor's body.
🏛 Hermes following #Thetis in her chariot, Terracotta lekythos ca 500 BCE