At Rome on the fifteenth of May, the month so named from his mother, a festival was celebrated to his honor, by merchants, traders, &c. in which they sacrificed a sow, sprinkled themselves, and the goods they intended for sale, with water from his fountain, and prayed that he would both blot out all the frauds and perjuries they had already committed, and enable them to impose again on their buyers.
Mercury is usually described as a beardless young man, of a fair complexion, with yellow hair, quick eyes, and a cheerful countenance, having wings annexed to his hat and sandals, which were distinguished by the names of petăsus and talaria: the caduceus, in his hand, is winged likewise, and bound round with two serpents: his face is sometimes exhibited half black, on account of his intercourse with the infernal deities: he has often a purse in his hand, and a goat or cock, or both, by his side.
The epithets applied to Mercury by the ancients were Εναγωνιος, the presider over combats; Στροφαιος, the guardian of doors; Εμπολαιος, the merchant; Εριουνιος, beneficial to mortals; Δολιος, subtle; Ἡγεμονιος, the guide, or conductor.
As to his origin, it must be looked for amongst the Phœnicians. The bag of money which he held signified the gain of merchandise; the wings annexed to his head and his feet were emblematic of their extensive commerce and navigation; the caduceus, with which he was said to conduct the spirit of the deceased to Hades, pointing out the immortality of the soul, a state of rewards and punishments after death, and a resuscitation of the body: it is described as producing three leaves together, whence it was called by Homer, the golden three-leaved wand.
BACCHUS was the son of Jupiter, by Semĕle, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes, in which city he is said to have been born. He was the god of good-cheer, wine, and hilarity; and of him, as such, the poets have not been sparing in their praises: on all occasions of mirth and jollity, they constantly invoked his presence, and as constantly thanked him for the blessings he bestowed. To him they ascribed the forgetfulness of cares, and the delights of social converse.
He is described as a youth of a plump figure, and naked, with a ruddy face, and an effeminate air; he is crowned with ivy and vine leaves, and bears in his hand a thyrsus, or javelin with an iron head, encircled with ivy and vine leaves: his chariot is sometimes drawn by lions, at others by tigers, leopards, or panthers; and surrounded by a band of Satyrs, Bacchæ, and Nymphs, in frantic postures; whilst old Silēnus, his preceptor, follows on an ass, which crouches with the weight of his burden.
The women who accompained him as his priestesses, were called Mænădes, from their madness; Thyădes, from their impetuosity; Bacchæ, from their intemperate depravity; and Mimallōnes, or Mimallonĭdes, from their mimicking their leaders.
The victims agreeable to him were the goat and the swine; because these animals are destructive to the vine. Among the Egyptians they sacrificed a swine to him before their doors; and the dragon, and the pye on account of its chattering: the trees and plants used in his garlands were the fir, the oak, ivy, the fig, and vine; as also the daffodil, or narcissus. Bacchus had many temples erected to him by the Greeks and the Romans.
Whoever attentively reads Horace's inimitable ode to this god, will see that Bacchus meant no more than the improvement of the world by tillage, and the culture of the vine.
MARS was the son of Jupiter and Juno, or of Jupiter and Erys. He was held in high veneration among the Romans, both on account of his being the father of Romulus, their founder, and because of their own genius, which always inclined them to war. Numa, though otherwise a pacific prince, having, during a great pestilence, implored the favor of the gods, received a small brass buckler, called ancīle from heaven, which the nymph Egeria advised him to keep with the utmost care, as the fate of the people and empire depended upon it. To secure so valuable a pledge, Numa caused eleven others of the same form to be made, and intrusted the preservation of these to an order of priests, which he constituted for the purpose, called Salii, or priests of Mars, in whose temple the twelve ancilia were deposited.