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.
"He was red with blood as if he were slaying living men, and he stood in his chariot. Beside him stood Deimos and Phobos, eager to plunge amidst the fighting men."
Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 191
🏛️ #Ares among Greeks and #Amazons, detail of an Apulian volute krater, 5th century BCE. Today in the National Archaeological Museum Jatta, Ruvo di Puglia.
"May you [#Luna-Selene 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 ff
🏛️ #Selene in her chariot drawn by bulls across the sky, about 1st CE, British Museum
"Through them all [the constellations of the zodiac] Helios passes in yearly course, as he drives his mighty furrow, and now to one, now to another he draws near, now as he rises and anon as he sets."
Aratus, Phaenomena 748
🏛 #Helios statuette, Antalya Archaeological Museum
"#Dionysos was named twice-born by the ancients, counting it as a single and first birth when the plant is set in the ground and begins to grow, and as a second birth when it becomes laden with fruit and ripens its grape-clusters. The god is thus considered to have been born once from the earth and again from the vine."
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 3.62.5
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"About him bold Eros beat his wings, and Kythereia [Aphrodite] led, before Lyaios [Dionysos] the bridegroom. For Theseus had just sailed away, and left without pity the banished maiden [Ariadne] asleep on the shore."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47.265
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"That gift of love consumed her. From her womb her baby, still not fully formed, was snatched, and sewn (could one believe the tale) inside his father's thigh, and so completed there his mother's time." #Ovid, Metamorphoses 3
🏛️ Birth of #Dionysos, detail, Roman sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos, 190 CE, Walters Art Museum
📸 Lucas Livingston
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
The villa of the Emperor #Hadrian at Tivoli, called Villa Adriana, is even in ruined condition one of the most spectacular Roman gardens. This statue of a young warrior identified as #Ares used to overlook a lake as one of six statues in a single colonnade.
"Swelled like young Mene's [Selene's] arching chariot-rail when high over Okeanos' fathomless-flowing stream she rises, with the space half filled with light betwixt her bowing horns."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 1.147
"As he rides his chariot, he shines upon men and deathless gods. Bright rays beam dazzlingly from him, and his bright locks streaming from the temples of his head gracefully enclose his far-seen face: a rich, fine-spun garment glows upon his body and flutters in the wind: and stallions carry him."
Homeric Hymn 31 to #Helios
Dionysos Liknites, “Dionysos of the Winnowing-fan” is an epithet of #Dionysos because at birth he is said to have been laid on a winnowing-fan. Placing newborn children in winnowing-fans is “an omen of wealth and fruitfulness”.
Hermes, too, was "laid in swaddling-bands on the winnowing fan".
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"Lord [#Dionysos], with whom #Eros the subduer and the blue-eyed Nymphai, and radiant #Aphrodite play, as you haunt the lofty mountain peaks."
Anacreon, Fragment 357
🏛️ Relief detail of Aphrodite and Dionysos (and baby Eros), Sarkophag 7b, Antalya Museum
Intaglio from Roman Caerleon made of red jasper, depicting the Roman war god #Mars.
Mars was usually shown as a warrior carrying shield, spear, and sword whilst wearing armour and a created helmet.
Sculpture of #Selene carved from a cylinder of coarse-grained marble. It shows no traces of reworking. The right hand, which may have held a torch, is missing. She probably adorned a sanctuary, perhaps a domestic one.
Full description in the alt text.
🏛️ Statue of Selene, white marble (Proconnesio), dated 250-300 CE
"When he [Helios] has stayed his golden-yoked chariot and horses, he rests there upon the highest point of heaven, until he marvellously drives them down again through heaven to Okeanos."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.397
🏛 Helios, silver-gilt disc. Foundin Elis, Greece, and dated 5th to 2nd century BCE. Today in the British Museum.
"Seilenos (#Silenus), 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
🏛️ Baby Dionysos in the arms of #Silenos, his foster father. From #Myrina, dated 2nd century CE. Today in the Musée du Louvre.
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"I will sing of stately #Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set #Cyprus. [...] Hail, sweetly-winning, coy-eyed goddess!"
Homeric Hymn 6 to Aphrodite
🏛️ Aphrodite #mosaic from East Bouleuterion, 2nd century CE, Aphrodisias
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"#Nike, giver of sweetness, to you the father, son of Ouranos (Uranus), on his high bench has granted glorious honour, so that in gold-rich Olympos you stand beside #Zeus and judge the outcome of prowess for immortals and mortals: be gracious, daughter of thick-tressed, right-judging Styx."
Bacchylides, Fr. 11
🏛️ Red-figure vase painting of #Hermes, Zeus, Nike, and #Hera.
"Where the milky region is set in a tranquil heaven, lay kindly Venus in her bower, whence night had but lately fled, faint in the rough embrace of her Getic lord [Mars]. About the posts and pillows of her couch swarm a troop of tender Amores."
Statius, Silvae 1.2.51
"As wind rises, golden Phoebe [Luna-Selene] ever blushes. But if at her fourth rising--for that is our surest guide--she pass through the sky clear and with undimmed horns, then all that day, and the days born of it to the month's end, shall be free from rain and wind."
Virgil, Georgics 1. 426
🏛️ Roman oil lamp decorated with the goddess #Luna
"Sol meanwhile, dishevelled, his bright sheen subdued as in the gloom of an eclipse, loathing himself, loathing the light, the day, gives way to grief, and, grief rising to rage, denies his duty to the world."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.397
🏛 Phaethon Sarcophagus, detail of Helios, 3rd century CE, #Verona, Museum-Lapidarium of Maffei
"And golden-haired #Dionysos made blonde-haired #Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Hesiod, Theogony 947
🏛️ Painted terracotta figures of Bacchus and Ariadne, 50 BCE - 50 CE, Thappsus, Sicily; now in the #Ashmolean Museum, #Oxford
Not just men can party - not even in #ancientGreece - as this female reveller proves. She is playing the popular party game kottabos, flinging drops of wine sediment at a target not seen here.
🎨 Red-figure kylix attributed to Onesimos ca 490 BCE: woman reveller playing kottabos