———
Though according to Cicero, there were no less than five gods of this name; yet to the son of Jupiter and Maia, the actions of all the others have been probably attributed, as he is the most famous and the best known.
Mercury was the messenger of the gods and the patron of travellers and shepherds; he conducted the souls of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over orators and merchants, but was also the god of thieves, pickpockets, and all dishonest persons.
————"A babe, all babes excelling,
A schemer subtle beyond all belief,
A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow stealing,
A night watching and door waylaying thief."
Shelley.
The day following his birth he offered an early proof of his dishonest propensities, by stealing away the oxen of Admetus which Apollo tended.
"The babe was born at the first peep of day,
He began playing on the lyre at noon,
And the same evening did he steal away
Apollo's herds."
Shelley.
He gave another proof of this propensity, by throwing himself upon the timid Cupid, and wrestling from him his quivers; and increased his notoriety by robbing Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his sceptre, and Vulcan of his mechanical instruments.
"Hermes with gods and men, even from that day
Mingled and wrought the latter much annoy,
And little profit, going far astray,
Through the dun night."
Shelley.
As the messenger of Jupiter, he was entrusted with all his secrets and permitted to make himself invisible whenever he pleased, or to assume any shape he chose.
The invention of the lyre and seven strings is ascribed to him, which he gave to Apollo, and received in exchange the celebrated caduceus, with which the God of poetry used to drive the flocks of King Admetus. This celebrated instrument was a rod entwined at one end by two serpents.
————————————"Come take
The lyre—be mine the glory of giving it—
Strike the sweet chords, and sing aloud and wake
The joyous pleasure out of many a fit
Of tranced sound—and with fleet fingers make
Thy liquid voiced comrade talk with thee;
It can talk measured music eloquently.
Then bear it boldly to the revel loud,
Love wakening dance, or feast of solemn state,
A joy by night or day, for those endowed
With art and wisdom, who interrogate!
It teaches, bubbling in delightful mood
All things which make the spirit most elate,
Soothing the mind with sweet familiar play,
Chasing the heavy shadows of dismay."
Shelley.
"O Hermes, thou who couldst of yore
Amphion's bosom warm,
And breathe into his strains the power,
The rugged rocks to charm;
Breathe, breathe into my lyre's soft string,
And bid its music sweet notes fling,
For what O lyre, can thee withstand?
Touched by an Orpheus' magic hand,
Thou calm'st the tiger's wrath:
The listening woods thou draw'st along,
The rivers stay to hear thy song,
And listen still as death.
Tityos with pleasure heard thy strain,
And Ixion smiled amid his pain."
Horace.
Numerous were the modes of sacrifice to Mercury, and the places in which they were offered; among others, the Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival in his honour. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive any artful measures, perjuries, or falsehoods they had used in the pursuit of gain; and this may be considered to have been particularly necessary when it is remembered that the merchants, who had promised him all the incense in the world to obtain his
protection, proved that they had profited by his principles, by offering him only a hundredth part, when they had secured his good offices.
Jupiter soon missed the services of his intelligent messenger, and recalled him to Olympus. Here, Mercury rendering some kindness to Venus, the goddess fell in love with him, and bore to him Hermaphrodite, a child which united the talents of his father with the graces of his mother; at the age of fifteen, he began to travel, and bathing one day in a fountain in Cana, excited the passion of Salmaeis, the nymph who presided over it.
"From both the illustrious authors of his race
The child was named; nor was it hard to trace
Both the bright parents through the infant's face.
When fifteen years, in Ida's cool retreat,
The boy had told, he left his native seat,
And sought fresh fountains in a foreign soil:
The pleasure lessened the attending toil.
With eager steps the Lycian fields he crossed,
And fields that border on the Lycian coast;
A river here he viewed so lovely bright,
It showed the bottom in a fairer light,
Nor kept a sand concealed from human sight.
The fruitful banks with cheerful verdure crowned,
And kept the spring eternal on the ground.
A nymph presides, nor practised in the chase,
Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race;
Of all the blue-eyed daughters of the main,
The only stranger to Diana's train;
Her sisters often, as 'tis said, would cry
'Fye, Salmaeis, what always idle! fye;
Or take the quiver, or the arrows seize
And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease.'
Nor quivers she, nor arrows e'er would seize,
Nor mix the toils of hunting with her ease;
But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide,
Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide;
Now in the limped streams she views her face,
And dressed her image in the floating glass:
On beds of leaves she now reposed her limbs,
Now gathered flowers that grew about her streams,
And there by chance was gathering as she stood
To view the boy—"
Ovid.
Hermaphroditus continued deaf to all entreaties and offers; and Salmaeis, throwing her arms around him, entreated the Gods to render her inseparable from him whom she adored. The Gods heard her prayer, and formed of the two, a being of perfect beauty, preserving the characteristics of both sexes.
Offerings were made to him of milk and honey, because he was the God of eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. Sometimes his statues represent him without arms, because the power of speech can prevail over everything.
The Greeks and Romans celebrated his festivals, principally in the month of May. They frequently placed on his back the statue of Minerva, and offered to him the tongues of the victims whom they immolated to the goddess.
"Who beareth the world on his shoulders so broad;
Hear me, thou power, who, of yore, by thy words
Couldst soften the hearts of the barbarous hordes,
And by the Palæstia taught him of the wild
To be gentle, and graceful, and meek as a child.
Thou messenger fleet of the cloud-throned sire,
'Twas thou who inventedst the golden-stringed lyre;
I hail thee the patron of craft and of guile,
To laugh while you grieve, to deceive while you smile,
When you chafed into wrath bright Apollo of old,
His dun-coloured steers having stol'n from the fold,
He laughed; for, while talking all fiercely he found
That his quiver, alack! from his back was unbound.
'Twas thou, who old Priam didst guide on his way,
When he passed unperceived thro' the hostile array,
Of the proud sons of Atreus, who sought to destroy
The towers of high Ilion, the city of Troy.
O Hermes, 'tis thou who conductest the blest
To the seats where their souls shall for ever exist,
Who governest their shades by the power of thy spell,
The favourite of Heaven, the favourite of Hell."
Horace.
