It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"They say he [#Hermes] was responsible for profit and an overseer of the businesses: consequently they set up the statue of him weighing a purse."
Suidas s.v. Hermes
This coin was minted circa 206 CE, during the reign of Caracalla. The obverse depicts the laureate head of Caracalla facing right. The reverse type features #Mars, naked save for cloak hanging from his shoulder, holding a branch and spear.
"Grant, oh, grant that I ride through the air in my father's car; give me the reins, O sire, give me the right to guide your fire-bearing steeds with the flaming reins; then let Corinth [...] be consumed by flames and bring the two seas together."
Seneca, Medea 28
🏛 Helios-Sol, Roman marble decoration, 3rd century CE, Terme di Diocleziano, #Rome
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
A long, elegant gold hairpin adorned with #Aphrodite and her son #Eros. Eros offers support to his mum who appears to adorn herself, adjusting one of her anklets to complement the snake-shaped arm bracelets she already wears.
🏛️ Gold Aphrodite Hairpin, 1st century BCE, Greece
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
For #AllHallows, have a relief of #Hermes in his role as #psychopomp. Hermes guides the souls of the dead to the underworld. Here, he takes the hand of a dead woman named Myrrhine on the way down to Hades.
🏛 Relief on Myrrhine's lekythos, ca 420-410 BCE, National Archaeological Museum, #Athens
"The Astera (Stars) hide away their shining form around lovely #Selene (the Moon) when in all her fullnesss she shines over all the earth." #Sappho, Fragment 34
🏛️ Luna-Selene, relief on the pediment at the Roman Baths
Meet this Roman gold and silver finger ring depicting the sun god Sol-Helios!
The relief shows the face of Helios in silver on a golden background. His seven-spiked sun-ray crown is also golden.
This is one of my favourite depictions of #Dionysos in ancient art. My written version of him is largely based on this gold relief of drunken Dionysos and a panther, supported by a #satyr friend.
🏛️ Naiskos ("little temple") relief framed by the columns and pediment of a temple, 2nd century BCE, National Archaeological Museum #Athens
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
#Aphrodite-Venus with her iconic top-bow hairstyle as she puts on an anklet or a sandal. The gold of the jewellery and red of her lips really stands out against her dark skin.
🏛️ #Venus statuette with gold jewellery from #Pompeii. Today in the National Archaeological Museum, #Naples
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
This solid bronze statuette of the Roman god #Jupiter (associated with #Zeus) was probably part of the domestic furnishings of a Roman 'domus' or 'villa'. The highest deity in the Roman pantheon, he is the god of international relations and guarantees the observation of treaties.
🏛️ Bronze statuette, #ancientRome, 1st century CE. Today in the Museu d’Art Medieval, #Barcelona.
Ares-Mars embraced by his love Aphrodite-Venus with a dog at their feet. The club in his hand is usually part of the iconography of #Herakles so it could also be a fresco depicting #Hercules and Megaera or Deïaneira. Does anyone know if it's Mars of Hercules?
Meet this spectacular statue of #Helios that was part of the ancient marine cargo of a merchant ship that sank during the Late Roman period (400 CE): the statues look as though they were cast yesterday rather than 1,600 years ago!
🏛 Figurine of the sun god #Sol-Helios, found in the port of Caesarea, Israel.
This bronze bust of the wine god Dionysos used to decorate a Thracian or Roman chariot.
🏛️ Bronze bust of #Dionysos from ancient Philipopolis (modern Plovdiv, #Bulgaria) dated to the 2nd century CE. He was the face of the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition in the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia.
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
A late #DayOfZeus entry today because I didn't manage to post before work:
It's the birth of #Athena: The tiny goddess jumps from #Zeus' head in full armour!
On the left, #Hermes and a rare bearded #Apollon watch the scene. On the right, an unknown goddess and #Ares look on.
🏛️ Black-figure vase painting dated about 540 BCE. Today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
"You, #Bacchus [Dionysos], from thyrsus-bearing India, with unshorn locks, perpetually young, you who frightens tigers with your vine-clad spear, and with a turban you bind your horned head." #Seneca, Phaedra 753