Mercury’s Day & Long tailed Tits. May 15th

May 15th in Rome was the feast of Mercury. Mercury was ‘the god of boundaries, commerce, communication (including divination), eloquence, financial gain, languages, luck, thieves, travellers, and trickery; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld.’ (wikipedia). Mercury is married to Maia the Goddess of May.

Ovid, in his almanac poem Fasti clearly has reservations about him. He mixes up Mercury’s roles as God of commerce and eloquence with his roles as God of thieves and trickery. In this extract, Ovid describes a trader, outwardly praying for his sins to be forgiven but in fact planning to continue to cheat his customers. The trader washes his goods in Mercury’s sacred spring, sprinkling with damp laurel. And yet plans to continue trading.

Book V: May 15: Ides

On the Ides, the Senate founded for you, (Mercury) a temple facing
The Circus: since then today has been your festival.
All those who make a living trading their wares,
Offer you incense, and beg you to swell their profits.
There is Mercury’s fountain close to the Capene Gate:
It ís potent, if you believe those who’ve tried it.
Here the merchant, cleansed, with his tunic girt,
Draws water and carries it off, in a purified jar.
With it he wets some laurel, sprinkles his goods
With damp laurel: those soon to have new owners.
And he sprinkles his hair with dripping laurel too,
And with that voice, that often deceives, utters prayers:
‘Wash away all the lies of the past’ he says,
‘Wash away all the perjured words of a day that’s gone.
If I’ve called on you as witness, and falsely invoked
Jove’s great power, hoping he wouldn’t hear:
If I’ve knowingly taken the names of gods and goddesses,
In vain: let the swift southerlies steal my sinful words,
And leave the day clear for me, for further perjuries,
And let the gods above fail to notice I’ve uttered any.
Just grant me my profit, give me joy of the profit I’ve
made:
And make sure I’ll have the pleasure of cheating a buyer.’
Mercury, on high, laughs aloud at such prayers,
Remembering how he himself stole Apollo’s cattle.

Bird of the Month

I saw a small but great exhibition on birds today at the Weston Library in Oxford, which inspired me to find a bird story for May.

The long tailed tit produces a marvellous nest. The outer shell is of thick moss and camouflaged with lichen. The binder is sticky spider silk and gossamer, which fixes the nest to tree forks or thorny bushes (such as gorse). This allows the nest to stretch, which allows it to accommodate as many as 12 to 16 chicks. The lining is an insulated bed of up to 2,000 feathers. There is a tiny entry via a small hole at the top of the dome.

Mating is over by May, unsuccessful birds often then find relatives and help them bring up their offspring. Pairs are monogamous.

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, faces charges of treason, adultery and incest.  She is condemned to death by beheading but is allowed a French swordsman rather than a London axeman. See my post on the beheading of Anne.
• 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Earl of Bothwell. A mysterious decision.  Firstly, he probably arranged the murder of her previous husband, Lord Darnley.  Secondly, was Mary forced into the marriage after he raped her? Subsequntly the married couple, lost in battle, after a hug they never saw each other again. She ended up imprisoned in England. He died after 10 years tied to a stake in a dungeon in Denmark.