Mercury and Psyche

Mercury ( Latin is the god of commerce , travel and other messenger gods in Roman mythology , related to Hermes Greek.

His name is linked to the Latin word MERX ("commodity", fr. Seller, ...), Mercar trade (trade), and Mercer (salary).

His attributes are the traditional stock market, usually held in the hand, petasus , the caduceus , sandals and a rooster and / or a goat.

It was celebrated May 15 in particular.

History

Mercury does not appear among the divinities di indigetes the archaic Roman religion. At the time of its assimilation with the Greek god Hermes , beginning about the fourth century BC, it combines the functions of Lucrii Dei, these ancient gods of commerce, trade and profit.

Mercury at stele large caduceus (Muse Carnavalet, Paris)

Some historians see Mercury in the merger of the Greek god Hermes and a god pre- Roman - perhaps Etruscan - the contract . This term contract would be in the broad sense: both merchant contract, an agreement among individuals on non-monetary things. ^Worship

The temple of Mercury was built in 495 BC. AD in the Circus Maximus , between the hills of the Aventine and Palatine. Particularly suitable place to worship a god of commerce known for its speed, because it was a major center of trade and there was a racetrack. The situation of the temple of Mercury placed between the Aventine held by the mob , and Palatine , the political center of the patricians , emphasizes its role as mediator.

Mercury does not belong to the group of early Roman deities, he had not received a Flamen (priest). Was honored at a party, however important, May 15, the Mercuralia festival during which the merchants sprinkled their heads and their cargo of water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena.

Description

Its attributes are: winged sandals and the petasus , the caduceus and sometimes the stock (held most often by hand).

His favorite animals

• rooster
• the goat
• snake
• Eagle

Powers

Mercury is the god of commerce, travelers, thieves, merchants, physicians, and it is also the messenger of the gods. He accompanies the souls in hell.

Relationships

Mercury is the son of Jupiter and the nymph Maia , daughter of Atlas.

He has had several relationships with goddesses like Venus or Chion. Most of his children with specific sexual characteristics Hermaphrodite , Pan and Cupid in the traditions later.

Wednesday is the day dedicated to the god Mercury.

Posterity

Communication

Mercury, messenger of the gods, is responsible for transmitting news. In the late Renaissance and early Baroque era, painters and authors are scholars in the allegory of the messenger: "Be brief, my good female Mercury," says Falstaff Dame Quickly to the hostess who is slow to connect him the message entrusted to it . The pimp , a leading French periodicals ( 1672 ), gives its readers the news of the Court and Paris (it will inspire the creation of Der Teutsch Merkur in Weimar in 1773 ). England still seem The Impartial Protestant Mercury ( 1681 ), The London Mercury ( 1682 ) or the Rutland and Stamford Mercury in 1695. The multiplication of these securities are that Mercury is the common name in the writings of Bayle : "the number of mercury or books that deserve this name has multiplied so much that it is time we should give in the history . "

In 1737 appears the British regional newspaper Sherborne Mercury, in 1758 , the American James Franklin, brother of Benjamin , founded the The Newport Mercury. The Quebec Mercury, English-language weekly, was founded in Quebec City in 1805. In 1824 it was the turn of Staffordshire Mercury, a weekly English El Mercurio of Valparaiso was founded in 1827. The sixth edition of the Dictionary of the Academy , published in 1835, adds this definition in the article on Mercury: "He has served and still serves as the title written in various periodicals on politics, literature, and contains announcements, news. Mercury French. The Mercure galant. Mercure de France. "

The Maitland Mercury the first Australian local newspaper, published for the first time on 7 January 1843 ; The Weston & Somerset Mercury English dates from the same year. The Guelph Mercury was founded in 1854 in Canada, the same year that the Australian Hobarton Mercury monitoring in 1855 by the Illawarra Mercury also Australia, the Clevedon Mercury appears for the first time in 1863 in England, the St Arnaud Mercury Australia on 13 February 1864.

It still exists today a number of newspapers that carry the name of Mercury, for example, Chilean national daily El Mercurio.

Ancient Literature

Hermes, as a message from the gods, but also motu proprio, appears throughout the Odyssey :

• In the first song, Zeus sends Hermes with the nymph Calypso to demand the release of Odysseus she holds him captive.

• In the fifth song, Hermes, announcing that "Zeus told me to come, in spite of myself," admits sometimes forced to exercise its mission.

• In the eighth song, "the very useful Hermes laughs misadventures of the lame Hephaestus , whose wife Aphrodite wrong with the Ares.

• In the tenth song on its own initiative, Hermes gives to Odysseus to protect the remedy of the sorceress Circe.

• The end of the eleventh song mentions the assistance provided by Hermes and Athena to Heracles , when he removes Cerberus in Hades.

• The fifteenth song says Hermes "honors the work of all men", which explains his presence alongside the "laborious Heracles' twelve labors performing or close to the" Ulysses "which implements its wiles.

• The last song depicts "the benevolent Hermes" as a solemn guide of the dead, accompanying souls to their final resting place.

Visual Arts

Mercury, after Hendrick Goltzius , 1597

The figure of Mercury appears in many paintings and sculptures from antiquity, such as small ex-voto. There are portraits of God as allegory or trade global allegory , historical scenes drawn from mythology , the chapter of the Iliad devoted to the Judgement of Paris (Mercury and Paris, Donatio Creti, 1747, Bologna), the legend Mercury and Argus , or scenes of "love of the gods" inspired by the Metamorphoses of Ovid , like Mercury, Herse and Aglauros painted by Veronese to 1585-90, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge or Venus, Mercury and Cupid Nicolas chaperone (circa 1630) at the Louvre. It is the companion of Jupiter in the representations of the loves of Jupiter and Alcmene (see Amphitryon of Molire ) or the tale of " Philemon and Baucis " . Some humanist allegories lend a dimension to this figure more esoteric. This is the case of Botticelli , in the Spring preserved in Florence. In the 1555 edition of the Emblems of Alciat, Mercury appears as an allegory of art, virtue and wisdom that can counteract the onslaught of Fortune capricious . An engraving of Jacob Matham , according Goltzius (1597) represents in its global dimension, associated with the zodiacal sign of Gemini and the virgin female character and cold and wet, as well as patron of the arts and letters.

One of the most famous sculptures is a bronze of Mercury Giambologna , Mercury steering wheel (after 1565), preserved in Florence. It was at Adrian de Vries that must be another bronze, Mercury and Psyche. The Greco-Roman pantheon is popular in the eighteenth century, which are emerging riding Pegasus Mercury, 1701-1702, of Antoine Coysevox , commissioned in 1699 to decorate the park of Marly, Mercury Attaching his Wings of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle , 1741-1744. In 1777, Augustin Pajou represents the allegory of Commerce (Louvre).

Combined with the alchemy because of the use of metal , Mercury appears frequently in illustrated editions devoted to the esoteric discipline .

Music

In Berlioz

Berlioz introduced Hermes (called Mercury) in his opera Les Troyens : at the end of the love duet between the Trojan Aeneas and the Queen of Carthage Dido "Night of infinite rapture and ecstasy"), the god strike his caduceus Aeneas's shield hanging from a column and a deep voice, refers to the sea by saying the word "Italy!", showing Aeneas to his destiny.

In Offenbach

Offenbach was a caricature of Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld:

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