West Somerset Scouts

Why Project Mercury?

Mercury was the messenger of the Roman Gods   & Mercury has been known since at least the time of the Sumerians (3rd millennium BC).

• It was given two names by the Greeks: Apollo for its apparition as a morning star and Hermes as an evening star; however, Greek astronomers knew that the two names referred to the same body.
• Mercury is usually pictured with wings on his sandals and on his cap and he was also the god of commerce, cunning, and invention.
• In ancient times, messages from one ruler to another or between armies were carried by “heralds” who had to be treated with respect and were not to be harmed.
• These heralds carried a special staff as the sign of their position and this was called a “caduceus” and Mercury carried such a staff.
• Supposedly because Mercury moved so quickly, the staff, as well as his cap and sandals, had wings.
• Of all the planets in our solar system, the one that moves most quickly against the background of the stars was naturally named after the swift-footed Hermes and the Romans identified their own god of commerce, Mercury, with Hermes, and so we know the planet as Mercury.
• Hermes, or Mercury, was the patron of travellers, merchants (deity of commerce) & rogues as well as being the Roman wind deity.
• He also escorted the souls of the departed to Hades; and as that character, he was called Psychopompus and under the name of Oneicopompus, he was regarded as the lord of dreams and visions.
• His festival was celebrated on May 15, at which time merchants sprinkled themselves and their wares with holy water to insure large profits.
• Mercury is the source of words such as market, merchandise, merchant, and merciful.
• Lord of Wednesday.
• In astro-mythology, the messenger, being the intermediary between the four elements, air, earth, fire, water, and the phenomena produced by them.

So now you can take your pick as to the reason?