It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Indeed they would have chopt up little Bakkhos [#Dionysos] a baby still piecemeal in the distracted flood of their vagabond madness, had not #Hermes come on wing and stolen Bakkhos again with a robber's untracked footsteps."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 9.28
🏛 Hermes and baby Dionysos, detail of a red-figure krater. Today in the Musée du Louvre.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Zeus taking up the child [Dionysos], handed it over to #Hermes, and ordered him to take it to the cave in Nysa, which lay between Phoenicia and Neilos [the River Nile]."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.2.3
🏛 Birth of #Dionysos from #Zeus' thigh, Roman work of the 2nd century after a Greek original of the late 4th century BCE, Vatican Museum
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Happy #SaintNicholasDay. What if Hermes brought the gifts? Would he gives us what we want, what we need, or what the mischievous god finds the most funny?
🏛 #Hermes gives to mankind from D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his daimon i.e. [#Hermes], first they are judged and sentenced, as they have lived well and piously, or not. And those who are found to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the Acheron." #Plato, Phaedros 112e
🏛 Hermes guides the soul of a dead woman to #Charon, attic lecythus, dated 450 BCE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"[Zeus] commanded that glorious Hermes should be lord over all birds of prey and grim-eyed lions, and boars with gleaming tusks, and over [herder's] dogs and all the herds and flocks that the wide earth nourishes, and over all sheep."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 560
🏛 Hermes-Mercurius, marble relief made by Artus Quellinus in the 17th century CE.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"They say he [#Hermes] was responsible for profit and an overseer of the businesses: consequently they set up the statue of him weighing a purse."
Suidas s.v. Hermes
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
For #AllHallows, have a relief of #Hermes in his role as #psychopomp. Hermes guides the souls of the dead to the underworld. Here, he takes the hand of a dead woman named Myrrhine on the way down to Hades.
🏛 Relief on Myrrhine's lekythos, ca 420-410 BCE, National Archaeological Museum, #Athens
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#Mosaic of #Hermes-Mercurius, easily recognisable by the wings on his head, representing the planet Mercury or the fourth day of the ancient Roman week, diēs Mercuriī (Wednesday).
🏛 #Mercurius as Planet Mercury in The House of the Planetarium, Italica, #Spain
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#Hermes as a UPS delivery man, a visual joke from the music video of Hermes' #DestripandoLaHistoria song by Spanish musicians and animators Pascu and Rodri. The song retells many of Hermes' myths like the theft of Apollo's cows, the slaying of Argos, and the birth of Orion.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Baby #Dionysos sitting on the lap of his big brother #Hermes is given to the #satyr Tropheus and the nymphs of Nysa. Also in the scene are Anatrophe (“upbringing”), as well as Ambrosia and Nektar (food and drink of the gods).
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
This delightful figure of the #Roman god Mercurius is holding a purse & has a winged feet and a winged helmet. He protected the pay of Roman soldiers, so this figure may have belonged to a soldier.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"They say he [#Hermes] was responsible for #profit and an overseer of the businesses: consequently they set up the statue of him weighing a purse." #Suidas, Byzantine Greek lexicon, 10th century CE
🏛️ Hermes, Archaeological Museum of Nikopolis, Greece
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Meet this #silver figurine of Hermes-Mercurius, holding his iconic kerykeion or caduceus staff in his left. With the two snakes winding around it, it has been mistaken for the Rod of Asklepios, the symbol of medicine, when in truth the caduceus is the symbol of commerce.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Terracotta pyxis showing the Judgement of Paris. Paris is seated on a rock with #Hermes approaching him from the left. The goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena are depicted on the opposite side not shown here.
🏛️ Terracotta pyxis with a white-ground vase painting dated 465–460 BCE. Today in the Met, New York
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#Mercurius and #Hermes are not only the messengers of the gods, but the gods of merchants and thieves as well. Here, Mercurius is depicted with his winged hat holding a purse to signify his connection with wealth & success in business.
🏛️ Hermes-Mercurius, Roman bronze figurine, dated 1st-3rd century CE, private collection
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Marble sculpture of #Hermes. After rediscovery in 1771 near #Rome, he was displayed at Lansdowne House in London. The sculpture's right leg and the palm tree originally came from a different ancient statue.
🏛️ Lansdowne Hermes, 2nd century CE Roman copy of a 4th century BCE Greek original, today in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art