Mercurii promontorium, a cape of Africa near Clypea. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 44; bk. 29, ch. 27.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 4.
Mercŭrius, a celebrated god of antiquity, called Hermes by the Greeks. There were no less than five of this name according to Cicero; a son of Cœlus and Lux; a son of Valens and Coronis; a son of the Nile; a son of Jupiter and Maia; and another called by the Egyptians Thaut. Some add a sixth, a son of Bacchus and Proserpine. 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 of Jupiter in particular; he was the patron of travellers and of shepherds; he conducted the souls of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over orators, merchants, declaimers, but he was also the god of thieves, pickpockets, and all dishonest persons. His name is derived a mercibus, because he was the god of merchandise among the Latins. He was born, according to the more received opinion, in Arcadia, on mount Cyllene, and in his infancy he was entrusted to the care of the Seasons. The day that he was born, or more probably the following day, he gave an early proof of his craftiness and dishonesty, in stealing away the oxen of Admetus which Apollo tended. He gave another proof of his thievish propensity, by taking also the quiver and arrows of the divine shepherd, and he increased his fame by robbing Neptune of his trident, Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his sceptre, and Vulcan of many of his mechanical instruments. These specimens of his art recommended him to the notice of the gods, and Jupiter took him as his messenger, interpreter, and cup-bearer in the assembly of the gods. This last office he discharged till the promotion of Ganymede. He was presented by the king of heaven with a winged cap called petasus, and with wings for his feet called talaria. He had also a short sword called herpe, which he lent to Perseus. With these he was enabled to go into whatever part of the universe he pleased with the greatest celerity; and besides, he was permitted to make himself invisible, and to assume whatever shape he pleased. As messenger of Jupiter he was entrusted with all his secrets. He was the ambassador and plenipotentiary of the gods, and he was concerned in all alliances and treaties. He was the confidant of Jupiter’s amours, and he often was set to watch over the jealousy and intrigues of Juno. The invention of the lyre and its seven strings is ascribed to him. This 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. See: [Caduceus]. In the wars of the giants against the gods, Mercury showed himself brave, spirited, and active. He delivered Mars from the long confinement which he suffered from the superior power of the Aloides. He purified the Danaides of the murder of their husbands, he tied Ixion to his wheel in the infernal regions, he destroyed the hundred-eyed Argus, he sold Hercules to Omphale the queen of Lydia, he conducted Priam to the tent of Achilles, to redeem the body of his son Hector, and he carried the infant Bacchus to the nymphs of Nysa. Mercury had many surnames and epithets. He was called Cyllenius, Caduceator, Acacetos, from Acacos, an Arcadian; Acacesius, Tricephalos, Triplex, Chthonius, Camillus, Agoneus, Delius, Arcas, &c. His children are also numerous as well as his amours. He was father of Autolycus by Chione; of Myrtillus by Cleobula; of Libys by Libya; of Echion and Eurytus by Antianira; of Cephalus by Creusa; of Prylis by Issa; and of Priapus, according to some. He was also father of Hermaphroditus by Venus; of Eudorus by Polimela; of Pan by Dryope, or Penelope. His worship was well established, particularly in Greece, Egypt, and Italy. He was worshipped at Tanagra in Bœotia, under the name of Criophorus, and represented as carrying a ram on his shoulders, because he delivered the inhabitants from a pestilence by telling them to carry a ram in that manner round the walls of their city. The Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival on the 15th of May, in honour of Mercury, in a temple near the Circus Maximus. A pregnant sow was then sacrificed, and sometimes a calf and particularly the tongues of animals were offered. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water with laurel leaves, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive whatever artful measures, false oaths, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pursuit of gain. Sometimes Mercury appears on monuments with a large cloak round his arm, or tied under his chin. The chief ensigns of his power and offices are his caduceus, his petasus, and his talaria. Sometimes he is represented sitting upon a crayfish, holding in one hand his caduceus, and in the other the claws of the fish. At other times he is like a young man without a beard, holding in one hand a purse, as being the tutelary god of merchants, with a cock on his wrists as an emblem of vigilance, and at his feet a goat, a scorpion, and a fly. Some of his statues represented him as a youth fascino erecto. Sometimes he rests his foot upon a tortoise. In Egypt his statues represented him with the head of a dog, whence he was often confounded with Anubis, and received the sacrifice of a stork. Offerings of milk and honey were made because he was the god of eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. The Greeks and Romans offered tongues to him by throwing them into the fire, as he was the patron of speaking of which the tongue is the organ. Sometimes his statues represent him as without arms, because, according to some, the power of speech can prevail over everything, even without the assistance of arms. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 1, &c.; Iliad, bk. 1, &c.; Hymn to Hermes.—Lucian, Dialogi Mortuorum.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 667; Metamorphoses, bks. 1, 4, 11, 14.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 35.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bks. 1, 7, 8, & 9.—Orpheus.—Plutarch, Numa.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 6.—Plato, Phædras.—Livy, bk. 36.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1; Æneid, bk. 1, li. 48.—Diodorus, bks. 4 & 5.—Apollodorus, bks. 1, 2, & 3.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 10.—Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2.—Tzetzes, Lycophron, li. 219.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum.—Lactantius [Placidus].—Philostratus, bk. 1, Imagines, ch. 27.—Marcus Manilius.—Macrobius, bk. 1, Saturnalia, ch. 19.——Trismegistus, a priest and philosopher of Egypt, who taught his countrymen how to cultivate the olive, and measure their lands, and to understand hieroglyphics. He lived in the age of Osiris, and wrote 40 books on theology, medicine, and geography, from which Sanchoniathon the Phœnician historian has taken his theogonia. Diodorus, bks. 1, & 5.—Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride.—Cicero, bk. 3, de Natura Deorum.
Merĕtrix, a name under which Venus was worshipped at Abydos and at Samos, because both those places had been benefited by the intrigues or the influence of courtesans. Athenæus, bk. 13.
Mēriŏnes, a charioteer of Idomeneus king of Crete during the Trojan war, son of Molus, a Cretan prince, and Melphidis. He signalized himself before Troy, and fought with Deiphobus the son of Priam, whom he wounded. He was greatly admired by the Cretans, who even paid him divine honours after death. Horace, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 15.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, &c.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, fable 1.——A brother of Jason son of Æson, famous for his great opulence and for his avarice. Polyænus, bk. 6, ch. 1.
Mermĕros, a centaur. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 305.——A Trojan, killed by Antilochus.——A son of Jason and Medea, who was father to Ilus of Corinth. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3.
Mermnadæ, a race of kings in Lydia, of which Gyges was the first. They sat on the Lydian throne till the reign of Crœsus, who was conquered by Cyrus king of Persia. They were descendants of the Heraclidæ, and probably received the name of Mermnadæ from Mermnas, one of their own family. They were descended from Lemnos, or, according to others, from Agelaus, the son of Omphale by Hercules. Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 14.
Meroe, now Nuabia, an island of Æthiopia, with a town of the same name, celebrated for its wines. Its original name was Saba, and Cambyses gave it that of Meroe from his sister. Strabo, bk. 17.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 31.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 173.—Mela, bk. 1.—Lucan, bk. 4, lis. 3, 33; bk. 10, lis. 163 & 303.
Merŏpe, one of the Atlantides. She married Sisyphus son of Æolus, and, like her sisters, was changed into a constellation after death. See: [Pleiades]. It is said, that in the constellation of the Pleiades the star of Merope appears more dim and obscure than the rest, because she, as the poets observe, married a mortal, while her sisters married some of the gods or their descendants. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 175.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 192.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A daughter of Cypselus, who married Cresphontes king of Messenia, by whom she had three children. Her husband and two of her children were murdered by Polyphontes. The murderer obliged her to marry him, and she would have been forced to comply had not Epytus or Telephontes, her third son, revenged his father’s death by assassinating Polyphontes. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 3.——A daughter of Œnopion, beloved by Orion. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 4.——A daughter of the Cebrenus, who married Æsacus the son of Priam.——A daughter of Erechtheus, mother of Dædalus. Plutarch, Theseus.——A daughter of Pandarus.——A daughter of the river Sangarius, who married king Priam.
Merops, a king of the island of Cos, who married Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was changed into an eagle and placed among the constellations. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 763.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Hyginus, Poetica astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 16.——A celebrated soothsayer of Percosus in Troas, who foretold the death of his sons Adrastus and Amphius, who were engaged in the Trojan war. They slighted their father’s advice, and were killed by Diomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.——One of the companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 702.
Meros, a mountain of India sacred to Jupiter. It is called by Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 21, Nysa. Bacchus was educated upon it, whence arose the fable that Bacchus was confined in the thigh (μηρος) of his father. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 13.—Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 10.—Diodorus, bk. 1.