Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury

by John F. Miller (Editor), Jenny Strauss Clay (Editor)

Overview

Of all the divinities of classical antiquity, the Greek Hermes (Mercury in his Roman alter ego) is the most versatile, enigmatic, complex, and ambiguous. The runt of the Olympian litter, he is the god of lies and tricks, yet is also kindly towards mankind and a bringer of luck. His functions embrace both the marking of boundaries and their transgression, but also extend to commerce, lucre, and theft, as well as rhetoric and practical jokes. In another guise, he plays the role of mediator between all realms of human and divine activity, embracing heaven, earth, and the netherworld.

Pursuing this elusive divinity requires a truly multidisciplinary approach, reflecting his prismatic nature, and the twenty contributions to this volume draw on a wide range of fields to achieve this, from Greek and Roman literature (epic, lyric, and drama), epigraphy, cult, and religion, to vase painting and sculpture. In offering an overview of the myriad aspects of Hermes/Mercury-including his origins, patronage of the gymnasium, and relation to other trickster figures-the volume attempts to track the god's footprints across the many domains in which he partakes. Moreover, in keeping with his deep connection to exchange, commerce, and dialogue, it aims to exemplify and further encourage discourse between Latinists and Hellenists, as well as between scholars of literary and material cultures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198777342
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/07/2019
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John F. Miller, Arthur F. and Marian W. Stocker Professor of Classics, University of Virginia,Jenny Strauss Clay, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Classics Emerita, University of Virginia

John F. Miller is Arthur F. and Marian W. Stocker Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1984 and served as chair of the Department of Classics from 1999 to 2014. He is the author of Apollo, Augustus, and the Poets (CUP, 2009), which was awarded the Charles Goodwin Award of Merit by the American Philological Association, and Ovid's Elegiac Festivals: Studies in the 'Fasti' (Peter Lang, 1991), and is also the co-editor of four collaborative volumes on Greek and Roman literature and culture. From 1991 until 1998 he was the Editor of Classical Journal.

Jenny Strauss Clay is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Classics Emerita at the University of Virginia, where she taught for 37 years, alongside holding visiting professorships at Duke University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, and the Ecole Normale, Lyon. She has served as the President of the Classical Association of the Midwest and South and of the American Philological Association, and is the author of The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey (PUP, 1983), The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns (PUP, 1989), Hesiod's Cosmos (CUP, 2003), and Homer's Trojan Theater: Space, Vision, and Memory in the Iliad (CUP, 2011). In 2012-13 she was awarded a Humboldt Stiftung Preis.

Table of Contents

FrontmatterList of FiguresList of AbbreviationsList of Contributors1. Introduction, Jenny Strauss Clay and John F. MillerSection I. Son, Father, Brother2. Like Mother, Like Son? Hermes and Maia in Text and Image, H. Alan Shapiro3. Hermes among Pan and the Nymphs on Fourth-Century Votive Reliefs, Carolyn M. Laferriere4. Hermes and Heracles, Jennifer LarsonSection II. Trickster5. Hide and Go Seek: Hermes in Homer, Jenny Strauss Clay6. Hermes Iambicus, Andrea Capra and Cecilia NobiliSection III. Comic7. The God and his Double: Hermes as Character and Speaking Statue in Greek Comedy, Simone Beta8. Hermes/Mercury: God of Comedy?, Erin K. MoodieSection IV. Erotic9. Hermes in Love: The Erotic Career of a Mercurial Character, Joseph Farrell10. Lascivus Puer: Cupid, Hermes, and Hymns in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Micah Young MyersSection V. Mediator11. Horace's Mercury and Mercurial Horace, S. J. Harrison12. Crossing the Borders: Vergil's Intertextual Mercury, Sergio CasaliSection VI. Commerce and Exchange13. Mercury and Materialism: Images of Mercury and the Tabernae of Pompeii, Duncan E. MacRae14. Did Mercury Build the Ship of Aeneas?, Thomas BiggsSection VII. Greek Religion and Cult15. Communicating with the Divine: Herms in Attic Vase Painting, Helene Collard16. Hermes as Visible in Votive Inscriptions, Jenny Wallensten17. Hermes, Kyllene, Samothrace, and the Sea, Sandra BlakelySection VIII. Egypt18. The Greek Magical Hymn to Hermes: Syncretism or Disguise? The Hellenization of Thoth in Graeco-Egyptian Magical Literature, Ljuba Merlina Bortolani19. Hermes and the Figs: On P.Oxy.17.2084, Athanassios VergadosSection IX. Cosmic20. Rethinking Hermes: Cosmic Justice and Proportional Distributions, Nicola Reggiani21. Great Hermes: Three Ways towards Stardom, Henk VersnelEndmatterIndex

Editorial Reviews

"The individual chapters are all of high quality. In their totality, they provide a comprehensive review of existing scholarship, and also to varying extents strike out on their own. As such, this book represents a major advance in scholarship." — Andrew Faulkner, University of Waterloo, Canada, Religious Studies Review

"The volume covers an impressive chronological and geographical range and is the first sustained, interdisciplinary study of Hermes/Mercury, from which one emerges with an expanded view of the multifaceted god... The individual chapters are all of high quality. In their totality, they provide a comprehensive review of existing scholarship, and also to varying extents strike out on their own. As such, this book represents a major advance in scholarship." — Andrew Faulkner, University of Waterloo, Canada, Religious Studies Review

"The contributions within the volume complement one another, drawing illuminating parallels between far-flung manifestations of this ever-wandering god. The collection has already become a standard reference work for all those studying Hermes/Mercury, opening many a fascinating research avenue to pursue this elusive god." — Maciej Paprocki, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher