Mercury

Mercury (Latin: Mercurius) is the Roman divinity of organized commerce, monetary exchange, lucrative voyages, and persuasive eloquence, fulfilling in classical literature the prominent office of swift herald and divine messenger of Jupiter. Unlike his archaic Greek counterpart, Arcadian Hermes—whose primordial origins were rooted in pastoralism, heaps of way stones, and rustic cattle-driving—Roman Mercury arose directly from the civic, economic, and social necessities of the early Republic. His monumental sanctuary at the foot of the Aventine Hill overlooking the Circus Maximus and the Vallis Murcia was dedicated on May 15, 495 BC (the Ides of May) by the primipilar centurion Marcus Laetorius, amidst intense political struggles between patricians and plebeians over debt bondage (nexum). On the same historic occasion, the guild of merchants (collegium mercatorum or mercuriales) was chartered to oversee public grain distribution (annona) and promote sea trade. Annually on the Ides of May, merchants congregated at the sacred spring of Aqua Mercurii near the Porta Capena to sprinkle laurel sprigs over their wares, invoking divine protection for profitable business and seeking absolution for the inevitable deceits and broken oaths of the marketplace. Under Hellenistic cultural influence, Mercury assimilated the visual iconography and myths of Hermes, donning winged talaria, the traveler's petasus, the serpent-entwined caduceus, and guiding departed souls as psychopomp (Mercurius Psychopompus) into the underworld.

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The caduceus, the purse of coins, the winged sandals and the rooster

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