Mercury (mythology)

Archeological evidence from Pompeii suggests that Mercury was among the most popular of Roman gods.^[8] The god of commerce was depicted on two early bronze coins of the Roman Republic, the sextans and the semuncia.^[9]

Syncretism

When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the

Romans associated Mercury with the Germanic god Wotan, by interpretatio romana; 1st-century Roman writer Tacitus identifies him as the chief god of the Germanic peoples.^[11] This association of Mercury and Wotan is seen in the English language day-name Wednesday and the French Mercredi.

Names and epithets

Mercury is known to the Romans as Mercurius and occasionally in earlier writings as Merqurius, Mirqurios or Mircurios, had a number of

• Mercurius Artaios, a syncretism of Mercury with the Celtic god
  Artaios, a deity of bears and hunting who was worshipped at Beaucroissant, France.^[12]
• Mercurius Arvernus, a syncretism of the Celtic
  Auvergne region of central France.^[12]
• Mercurius Cimbrianus, a syncretism of Mercury with a god of the Cimbri sometimes thought to represent Odin.
• Mercurius Cissonius, a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, who is written of in the area spanning from Cologne, Germany to Saintes, France.^[12]
• Mercurius Esibraeus, a syncretism of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, Portugal, and is possibly the same deity as Banda Isibraiegus, who is invoked in an inscription from the nearby village of Bemposta.^[13]
• Mercurius Gebrinius, a syncretism of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Germany.^[12]
• Mercurius Moccus, from a Celtic god, Moccus, who was equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France. The name Moccus ("pig") implies that this deity was connected to boar-hunting.^[12]
• Mercurius Sobrius ("Mercury the Teetotaler"), a syncretism of Mercury with a
  Carthaginian god of commerce.^[14]
• Mercurius Visucius, a syncretism of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshipped primarily in the frontier area of the empire in Gaul and Germany. Although he was primarily associated with Mercury, Visucius was also sometimes linked to the Roman god Mars, as a dedicatory inscription to "Mars Visucius" and Visucia, Visicius' female counterpart, was found in Gaul.^[12][15]

In ancient literature

In

Temple

Mercury's temple in Rome was situated in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine Hills, and was built in 495 BC.^[16]

That year saw disturbances at Rome between the patrician

The Roman Senate referred the decision to the popular assembly, and also decreed that whichever was chosen should also exercise additional duties, including presiding over the markets, establish a merchants' guild, and exercising the functions of the pontifex maximus. The people, because of the ongoing public discord, and in order to spite the senate and the consuls, instead awarded the honour of dedicating the temple to Marcus Laetorius, the senior military officer of one of the legions. The senate and the consuls, in particular the conservative Appius, were outraged at this decision, and it inflamed the ongoing situation.^[17]

The dedication occurred on 15 May, 495 BC.^[18]

The temple was regarded as a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between the plebeian stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a mediator.^{[citation needed]}

Worship

Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom, he was not assigned a flamen (priest), but he did have his own major festival, on 15 May, the Mercuralia. During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads ^{[citation needed]}.

In popular culture

Mercury features in the first published comic book story of Jack Kirby, Mercury in the 20th Century, published in Red Raven Comics 1, 1940.^[19]

The United States' so-called

Mercury is one of the playable gods in the third-person multiplayer online battle arena game Smite.^[21]

Gallery

• 
  Mercury portrait on a bronze semuncia (215–211 BC)
• 
  Mercury-Hermes, antique fresco from Pompeii
• 
  Bronze figurine of Mercury with three phalluses, with rooster in the left hand and money bag in the right hand, 100 to 250 A.D., found in Tongeren, ca 8.8 cm Gallo-Roman Museum (Tongeren)
• 
  Đorđe Jovanović: A statue of Mercury on top of the Central credits bureau building in Novi Sad, Serbia, 1896
• 
  Hendrik Goltzius

  : Mercury, with his symbols
• 
  Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst: Jupiter Gives Orders to Mercury to Kill Argus
• 
  A statue of the Greek god Hermes at Hart House, Toronto
• 
  A statue of Mercury on the island of Källskär in Kökar, Åland
• 
  Mercury as the winged messenger on a 1949

  Saint Lucia stamp issued in connection with the Universal Postal Union
• 
  Alfred Salmon after François Boucher, "Venus Entering Her Bath-Cupid's Lesson," 19th century, engraving

References