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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

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Speaker 3: My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick.

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Speaker 4: And today on the podcast, we're going to begin a

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Speaker 4: series of episodes talking about the planet Mercury, which I

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Speaker 4: recently realized has received very little love from us. Over

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Speaker 4: the years, We've done a bunch of episodes, particularly on

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Speaker 4: the moons of the big planets. We did a good

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Speaker 4: series on the moons of Jupiter, We've done plenty of

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Speaker 4: stuff on Mars, on Venus, more on the moons of Saturn,

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Speaker 4: but I think almost nothing about Mercury. So today we're

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Speaker 4: going to change that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the closest we've really come to any kind of

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Speaker 2: like dedicated Mercury analysis was a single episode that we

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Speaker 2: did on why Mercury and Venus have no moons? Like basically,

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Speaker 2: we were rounding out our coverage of the Solar System

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Speaker 2: Them's moons by talking about a couple of planets that

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Speaker 2: don't have moons and why that is the case.

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Speaker 4: I remember we talked a lot in that episode about

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Speaker 4: past false sightings of moons going around Venus and Mercury,

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Speaker 4: that where we now know today there actually are no

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Speaker 4: such moons, at least currently. But you know, in the past,

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Speaker 4: people have thought like, oh, yeah, Venus has a moon,

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Speaker 4: here's you know what it's like, or oh yeah, here's

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Speaker 4: something we think we see going around Mercury.

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Speaker 3: But that turned out.

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Speaker 4: I think there was one sighting of like light around

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Speaker 4: Mercury that just turned out to be stars I believe,

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Speaker 4: in the background, as opposed to something actually in orbit

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Speaker 4: around the planet. But anyway, I got interested in talking

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Speaker 4: about Mercury today sort of in a roundabout way. First,

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Speaker 4: I was just looking at a particular surface feature of

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Speaker 4: Mercury that we're going to come back and focus on,

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Speaker 4: I believe in part two of the series that has

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Speaker 4: been called the Giant Spider of Mercury. So that's in

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Speaker 4: store for you listeners in the future. But another way

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Speaker 4: I was thinking about it was that of all the

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Speaker 4: planets in the Solar System, Mercury is really the one

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Speaker 4: that seems to exist most within the blast zone of

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Speaker 4: the Sun. It's the one that it is, of course

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Speaker 4: the closest to the Sun, and so I always think

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Speaker 4: of it as a planet that is kind of bullied

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Speaker 4: or exists in a space of violence by this much more,

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Speaker 4: much larger and more powerful force. And now, of course

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Speaker 4: all the planets in the Solar System go around the Sun,

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Speaker 4: so you know, the Sun does dictate sort of the

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Speaker 4: plane of the Solar System, the gravitational movements of the

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Speaker 4: Solar System. But it's Mercury that feels like it's really

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Speaker 4: in there in the middle. It's like trapped with the

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Speaker 4: beast in the cage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, right up there,

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Speaker 2: the closest one to the campfire at the center of

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Speaker 2: our universe, the most hellish of the hell worlds.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's arguable something It might say Venus as words.

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Speaker 2: Venus is Venus Man is worse, but it is closest

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Speaker 2: to the fire, and that doesn't mean that it's immune

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Speaker 2: from our sci fi visions about potentially going there colonizing it. Well,

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Speaker 2: we'll get into some more of that, I think maybe

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Speaker 2: the third episode in this series. But I do remember

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Speaker 2: as a kid reading a particular Isaac Asimov's story I

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Speaker 2: believe was run around. Yeah, that takes place on Mercury,

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Speaker 2: and so this was one of I think this was

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Speaker 2: one of my, if not my first fictional experience with

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Speaker 2: the planet.

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Speaker 4: That was one of the laws of robotics stories where

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Speaker 4: it has that I forget the name of these two characters,

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Speaker 4: but they're you know, in the robot robopsychology stories you have,

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Speaker 4: is it Susan Calvin the main robopsychologist, and in some

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Speaker 4: of these stories is trying to investigate the conflicts between

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Speaker 4: the three main laws of robotics that are guiding robotic behavior.

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Speaker 4: But then other stories you get these two technicians whose

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Speaker 4: names I'm blanking on right now, but they're always trying

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Speaker 4: to troubleshoot problems and run around. There is a robot

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Speaker 4: that gets into a kind of loop on and its

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Speaker 4: behavior because I think it is stuck between the rule

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Speaker 4: that says it must carry out orders given to it

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Speaker 4: by humans versus the rule that says that it can't

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Speaker 4: bring harm to itself.

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Speaker 3: And of course, you know, being out on.

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Speaker 4: The surface of Mercury, there's a lot of harm you're

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Speaker 4: subject to. Yeah, as far as literary references go, I

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Speaker 4: think this is only loosely justified by our subject today.

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Speaker 4: Because the planet Mercury, as far as I could find,

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Speaker 4: is not mentioned in this poem. I thought maybe it was,

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Speaker 4: but it's not. But on my mind going into this

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Speaker 4: was the poem The Testimony of the Suns by the

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Speaker 4: American poet George Sterling.

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Speaker 3: Did you know this one?

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Speaker 2: Rob, If I had read about it, I had forgotten

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Speaker 2: it is that I know. This poet was much admired

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Speaker 2: by various authors, including some from the weird fiction era. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but I am not super familiar with this work.

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Speaker 4: Now, there is a weird fiction sensibility in this poem.

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Speaker 4: So it's like an epic cosmic poem that feels like

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Speaker 4: the kind of poem that would be enjoyed by Conan

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Speaker 4: or something. You know, it's just very It's a very

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Speaker 4: muscly poem that frames its description of the sort of

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Speaker 4: evolution of the cosmos in terms of battle and war

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Speaker 4: and that kind of thing. So, just to read one

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Speaker 4: brief example to kind of give you a taste of it,

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Speaker 4: he is talking about, you know, stars and constellations, and

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Speaker 4: Sterling writes, quote all tear, what captains compass thee, what

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Speaker 4: foes aldebrah are thine?

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Speaker 3: Read? With?

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Speaker 4: What blood of war's divine glows? That immortal panoply? What

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Speaker 4: music from capella runs? How hold the Pleiades they're bond?

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Speaker 4: How storms the hidden War beyond Orion's dreadful Sword of Suns.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty heavy, pretty heavy.

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Speaker 4: If somebody made a metal album out of this, I

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Speaker 4: really should. If they haven't, Yeah, yeah, deem We, their

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Speaker 4: enginery was not far in the dim eternal past. Deem

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Speaker 4: We Eternity at last will find their thunders unbegot.

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Speaker 3: So it goes on talking about a lot of things.

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Speaker 4: Eventually it talks about kind of the search, the search

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Speaker 4: for other life in the cosmos. But I was thinking

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Speaker 4: about it again because of that idea of Mercury just

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Speaker 4: being within this inner space that's like the closest of

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Speaker 4: the planets to the Sun, in a space where where

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Speaker 4: it feels that dreadful sword of the star is kind

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Speaker 4: of reaching out upon it. And we'll talk about some

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Speaker 4: actual scientific ways that that that kind of sword of

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Speaker 4: the Sun can manifest.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, that was on my mind making these notes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's, you know, especially when we factor in

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Speaker 2: the Goldie Locks scenario. The you know, it's it's easy

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Speaker 2: to think of our Sun as kind of a brutal tyrant,

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Speaker 2: but a powerful and protective one in some respects. So

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Speaker 2: you don't want to be too close, you know, you

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Speaker 2: don't want your orbit to be too close, because then

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Speaker 2: you're perhaps susceptible to the worst of their rages. You

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Speaker 2: also don't want to be too far away from them,

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Speaker 2: because then you are further away from their graces. You

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Speaker 2: want to be where we are, which and there are

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Speaker 2: other factors as well that we've talked about, you know,

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Speaker 2: the relationships with the other members of the Great Royal

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Speaker 2: House here. But we're in just the right place. We're

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Speaker 2: not too far away, and we're not too close.

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Speaker 4: We're close enough to still receive the gift packages they're

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Speaker 4: coming through, but we're not so close that we're getting

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Speaker 4: the full wrath when you know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we have an ally or two in the

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Speaker 2: outer Court as well.

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Speaker 4: So I thought we should start off with a basic

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Speaker 4: physical overview of Mercury, and then I think we're going

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Speaker 4: to talk about some mythological connections and dimensions as well

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Speaker 4: later in the episode. But to start with the basics.

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Speaker 4: Mercury is, as we've been saying, the innermost planet in.

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Speaker 3: The Solar System. It's the closest to the Sun.

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Speaker 4: It has a diameter of about forty nine hundred kilometers

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Speaker 4: or roughly three thousand miles, and that makes it also

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Speaker 4: the smallest planet in the Solar System, even smaller than Mars,

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Speaker 4: a bit bigger than Earth's moon. But despite the fact

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Speaker 4: that it is low in size and mass compared to

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Speaker 4: the other rocky planets, it is high in density. And

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Speaker 4: this is in part because it is mostly iron. Only

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Speaker 4: thirty percent of Earth's mass is iron, similar ratio for Venus.

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Speaker 4: Only about a quarter of Mars is iron, whereas something

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Speaker 4: like sixty to seventy percent of Mercury's entire planetary mass

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Speaker 4: is concentrated in its iron rich core. So as a result,

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Speaker 4: Mercury is a dense boy. Now, why so much iron

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Speaker 4: compared to the other rocky planets. That's a question we

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Speaker 4: can come back and revisit later. Now, as we mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 4: Mercury and Vas have no moons of their own. Interesting

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Speaker 4: question is why is that? As we said, you know,

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Speaker 4: we did a whole episode on this several years back

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Speaker 4: on the moonlessness of Venus and Mercury. But I'll try

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Speaker 4: to do a short version of the answer here, like

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Speaker 4: why no moon for Mercury. Now, in the case of Venus,

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Speaker 4: it's a somewhat different question because it seems there's nothing

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Speaker 4: in particular that prevents Venus from having a moon, and

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Speaker 4: in fact, it may have once had a moon that

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Speaker 4: it lost. There are papers discussing this as a hypothesis. Ultimately,

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Speaker 4: we don't know, you know, maybe it had one in

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Speaker 4: the past, but there's no strong reason that Venus couldn't

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Speaker 4: have a moon. The same is true of Mercury. There's

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Speaker 4: no reason it couldn't, but there are clear obstacles that

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Speaker 4: mitigate against Mercury's ability to hold onto a moon for

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Speaker 4: a long time to you know, have a moon for

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Speaker 4: billions of years. And those obstacles are rooted in two

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Speaker 4: facts about the planet, one that it is and two

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Speaker 4: that it is very close to the Sun. There's a

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Speaker 4: concept in astrophysics called a hill sphere. You can picture

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Speaker 4: this as the region of space around a planet in

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Speaker 4: which the planet's own gravity can maintain long term orbits

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Speaker 4: despite the influence of the host star. So this is

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Speaker 4: roughly the space in which it is possible for a

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Speaker 4: planet to maintain a moon. Now that doesn't mean that

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Speaker 4: anything within the space will definitely become a moon. The

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Speaker 4: ability to maintain the orbit depends on multiple factors, like

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Speaker 4: what kind of object, what kind of orbit, you know,

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Speaker 4: they're like prograde and retrograde orbits, and there are different

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Speaker 4: types of eccentricity in an orbit, so there are a

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Speaker 4: lot of factors involved, but generally, the estimates I've seen

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Speaker 4: are that long term stable orbits for normal moons need

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Speaker 4: to be in the inner part of the hill sphere.

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Speaker 4: This is sometimes expressed as roughly the inner half of

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Speaker 4: the hillsphere is kind of the safe zone.

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Speaker 3: For normal moons.

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Speaker 4: The size of a planet's hillsphere depends on the mass

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Speaker 4: of the planet, the mass of the star its orbiting,

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Speaker 4: and the planet's distance from the star. So because Earth

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Speaker 4: is larger and farther from the Sun, it has a

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Speaker 4: pretty comfortable hillsphere with a radius of about one and

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Speaker 4: a half million kilometers, and the Earth's moon is comfortably

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Speaker 4: inside the inner half of this at about three hundred

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Speaker 4: and eighty thousand kilometers away. Now, what about Mercury's hillsphere.

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Speaker 4: Mercury has a relatively eccentric orbit, so you can picture

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Speaker 4: the orbits of planets like Earth and Venus. They have

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Speaker 4: a much more circular orbit, you know, not perfectly circular,

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Speaker 4: but much closer to a perfect circle, whereas Mercury's orbit

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Speaker 4: is much more like an egg shape or an oval.

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Speaker 4: Its actual distance from the Star changes a lot over

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Speaker 4: the course of a murcat year, which by the way,

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Speaker 4: lasts about eighty eight earth days, so it's got a

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Speaker 4: very fast orbit around the Sun as well. The semi

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Speaker 4: major axis of Mercury's orbit is about zero point thirty

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Speaker 4: nine astronomical units, which means it's about thirty nine percent

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Speaker 4: of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In

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Speaker 4: raw numbers. The Earth is on average about one hundred

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Speaker 4: and fifty million kilometers from the Sun. Mercury is only

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Speaker 4: about fifty eight million kilometers away. And this means, and

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Speaker 4: this will be a theme that we return to throughout

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Speaker 4: the series, that while all of the planets in the

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Speaker 4: Solar System orbit the Sun, and thus they are all

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Speaker 4: sort of gravitationally ruled by the influence of the Sun,

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Speaker 4: and while they are all affected by things like solar

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Speaker 4: radiation and solar wind, Mercury is a planet that is

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Speaker 4: truly dominated by these factors. I would say Mercury is

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Speaker 4: dominated both energetically and gravitationally by the Sun beause Mercury

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Speaker 4: is relatively small, and because its orbit is so dominated

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Speaker 4: by the Sun's gravitation. It's hill sphere is also very small.

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Speaker 4: It's only a fraction of Earth's. So there's only this

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Speaker 4: relatively narrow radius in which an object could be trapped

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Speaker 4: in a stable orbit around Mercury without either being perturbed

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Speaker 4: by the Sun's gravity and like pulled out of orbit

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Speaker 4: or destroyed by being brought too close to the planet.

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Speaker 3: So while it.

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Speaker 4: Would be it would not be impossible for Mercury to

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Speaker 4: have a stable moon, it would be difficult. There's just

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Speaker 4: not a big range for that to happen. As a

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Speaker 4: side note, I found this interesting as a point of

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Speaker 4: comparison while I was researching this. Even the dwarf planet Series,

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Speaker 4: which is about five times smaller than Mercury, has a

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Speaker 4: slightly bigger hill.

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Speaker 3: Sphere than Mercury does.

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Speaker 4: And Series is basically just a big asteroid, Like It's

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Speaker 4: the biggest asteroid is big enough, you know, to have

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Speaker 4: been gravitationally rounded, but it's basically still just a big asteroid,

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Speaker 4: And it has a slightly larger realistic zone for the

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Speaker 4: parking of a moon than Mercury does. And I think

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Speaker 4: this just illustrates that distance from the Sun matters a lot.

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Speaker 4: So that's one example of how Mercury is gravitationally dominated

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Speaker 4: by the influence of the Sun, but I also mentioned

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Speaker 4: that it is energetically dominated by the Sun. On average,

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Speaker 4: the day side of Mercury is blasted by solar radiation

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Speaker 4: at about seven times the intensity of what reaches Earth,

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Speaker 4: you know, And that's just the average. At its perihelium.

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Speaker 4: When it comes closest to the Sun, the solar flux

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Speaker 4: can be like more than ten times what we receive

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Speaker 4: on Earth. And I remember thinking about this years ago, Like,

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Speaker 4: you know, if I went out onto the day side

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Speaker 4: surface of Mercury with my skin exposed, how long before

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Speaker 4: I got a sunburn? I think sunburn might be too

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Speaker 4: gentle of a framing. I don't know if there's I

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Speaker 4: don't think there's really any experiment that can say exactly

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Speaker 4: what would happen to a human body here, But I

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Speaker 4: think it would be pretty pretty rough, pretty fast. So

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Speaker 4: ignoring the effects of the near vacuum, which in reality

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Speaker 4: would probably be the thing that would kill you first,

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Speaker 4: you would I expect you would suffer very bad or

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Speaker 4: even fatal burns quite quite quickly. So Mercury's day side

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Speaker 4: can reach temperatures of about eight hundred degrees fahrenheit or

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Speaker 4: four hundred and thirty degrees celsius. This is incredibly hot

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Speaker 4: lead meltingly hot. Though it would be a very different

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Speaker 4: kind of heat from what we are familiar with here

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Speaker 4: on Earth, because on Earth, basically all of our experiences

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Speaker 4: of heat are heat within a gas medium or a

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Speaker 4: liquid medium. So when you standing outside on a hot day,

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Speaker 4: or even just feeling the inside of a hot oven

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Speaker 4: with your hand, there is hot air to conduct the heat.

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Speaker 4: Mercury is often said to have basically no atmosphere. It

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Speaker 4: does have a very very thin exosphere, but it's only

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Speaker 4: like the faintest suggestion of an atmosphere. It's a near vacuum,

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Speaker 4: so there would be no real heating by convection or

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Speaker 4: contact with hot gas. All of the heat you felt

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Speaker 4: would be coming from a few different sources, So there'd

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Speaker 4: be direct radiation from the Sun overhead, and then there

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Speaker 4: would be thermal radiation from the burning hot rocky ground,

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Speaker 4: so radiation coming up off the ground. And if you

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Speaker 4: think about this, this rocky ground is going to be

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Speaker 4: heated by the sun over the course of Mercury's incredibly

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Speaker 4: long solar day, which lasts about one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 4: six earth days, so on mercury, this is another weird fact.

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Speaker 4: A day is longer than a year. It takes eighty

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Speaker 4: eight earth days for mercury to go around the Sun,

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Speaker 4: versus it takes one hundred and seventy six earth days

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Speaker 4: to go from noon to the next noon on mercury. Now,

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Speaker 4: that can be complicated when you're talking about different types

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Speaker 4: of days because the actual rotational period of mercury is

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Speaker 4: shorter than that, but relative to its quick orbit around

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Speaker 4: the Sun, the solar day actually ends up taking so

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Speaker 4: much longer. It takes one hundred and seventy six earth days.

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Speaker 4: So by the time a slice of the day side

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Speaker 4: of Mercury reaches noon, it has been preheating for weeks.

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Speaker 4: They did a thorough preheat on that oven, and then

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Speaker 4: finally I guess there'd be another heat source, which would

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Speaker 4: potentially be direct contact with the hot ground, which again

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Speaker 4: has been preheating for a long time. So trying to

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Speaker 4: imagine standing on the surface of mercury is just a

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Speaker 4: very different mental exercise. I think it would be a

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Speaker 4: very intense but all so weird and unfamiliar kind of heat,

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Speaker 4: like being in space. But also standing on a hot

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Speaker 4: frying pan and standing under a giant magnifying glass that's

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Speaker 4: focusing the Sun's rays on you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it would give you a lot to think about,

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Speaker 2: but maybe not for a very very long period of time.

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Speaker 3: Maybe for a few seconds. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So I don't know exactly how long it would take

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Speaker 4: to incinerate you, but at the very least we can

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Speaker 4: say an incredibly hostile thermal environment. And again this is

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Speaker 4: on top of the other factors that would probably kill

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Speaker 4: you even faster, like the basically vacuum exposure. So for

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Speaker 4: these reasons, among others, Mercury is usually not considered a

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Speaker 4: very good place to look for life in the Solar System. Now,

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Speaker 4: of course, there are always people who want to play

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Speaker 4: around with possibilities. They're like, oh, what, you know, what

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Speaker 4: could live there? But people who do that kind of

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Speaker 4: exercise are really more they're playing a game of looking

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Speaker 4: for exceptions. You know. It's not like Mercury is the

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Speaker 4: kind of place we would generally expect to find life forms.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but you get into like, well, okay, if

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Speaker 2: there was life there, what could it possibly look like

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Speaker 2: or have looked like? Likewise, the other scenario, like if

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Speaker 2: we were to try and colonize mercury, what form could

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Speaker 2: it possibly take? And I think we'll get into some

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Speaker 2: some of the more noteworthy examples in both of these

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Speaker 2: columns later on in the series.

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Speaker 4: Now, there's a flip side when it comes to the

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Speaker 4: thermal environment, which is that also because there's no meaningful

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Speaker 4: atmosphere to trap and recirculate any of that heat. The

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Speaker 4: night side of Mercury regularly drops to negative one hundred

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Speaker 4: and eighty degrees celsius or negative two ninety fahrenheit, so

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Speaker 4: very hot day, very cold night. The surface of Mercury

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Speaker 4: actually goes through the most extreme temperature swings of any

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Speaker 4: planet in the Solar System. However, despite the intensity of

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Speaker 4: the solar flux, Mercury is not the hottest of the

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Speaker 4: inner planets. Venus is actually hotter, and that's because it

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Speaker 4: has this very thick heat trapping atmosphere, kind of a

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Speaker 4: hyper greenhouse effect, which wraps the planet's surface in this

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Speaker 4: blanket of searing hot carbon dioxide.

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Speaker 3: So Venus is.

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Speaker 4: Closer to the Sun than Earth is, and it's got

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Speaker 4: this super thick atmosphere which traps the heat in once

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Speaker 4: it reaches the planet.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Mercury is the hot, hot frying pan, but Venus

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Speaker 2: is the hot, hot pressure cooker.

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Speaker 4: Yes, so another weird fact about what it would be

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Speaker 4: like to dwell on Mercury if you were really to

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Speaker 4: go there. Of course, we mentioned the fact that Mercury's

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Speaker 4: solar day is longer than it's year. It gets even

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Speaker 4: stranger because at certain places on Mercury's surface, at certain

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Speaker 4: times of year, you would also experience a kind of

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Speaker 4: a false sunrise or a double sunrise, where coming out

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Speaker 4: of this freezing night, the sun would rise briefly and

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Speaker 4: then set, going back under the horizon that it rose from,

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Speaker 4: and then rise again before performing the full arc over

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Speaker 4: the sky. And then you might get the same thing

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Speaker 4: in reverse at sunset, where the sun would set and

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Speaker 4: then oh.

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Speaker 3: No, peekaboo again back up over the.

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Speaker 4: Horizon, and then fully set again for the complete night.

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Speaker 4: That's just sort of a weird feature of the interaction

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Speaker 4: between the timing of Mercury's rotation and the end its

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Speaker 4: orbit around the Sun. So another question to address is

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Speaker 4: why does Mercury lack a significant atmosphere. Again, it has

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Speaker 4: this very thin, very tenuous exosphere, but it's almost nothing.

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Speaker 4: It's very very little gas, and interestingly, the lack of

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Speaker 4: a significant atmosphere seems to be in part for the

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Speaker 4: same reasons that make it hard for Mercury to hold

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Speaker 4: onto a moon. Because the planet is small and because

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Speaker 4: it's so close to the Sun. So because of Mercury's

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Speaker 4: relatively low mass, its gravity is weak, meaning it has

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Speaker 4: less power less gripping power gravitational gripping power to hold

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Speaker 4: on to gases and volatiles that float above its surface,

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Speaker 4: so its grip is weaker. Meanwhile, because it's so close

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Speaker 4: to the Sun, Mercury is blasted by high solar radiation

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Speaker 4: and intense solar winds now. On one hand, these forces,

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Speaker 4: along with other factors like micrometeoroid impacts, actually continuously liberate

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Speaker 4: new gas and volatile particles from the surface of Mercury,

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Speaker 4: so these factors these contribute to the generation of new atmosphere.

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Speaker 4: Mercury's thin exosphere is always being replenished, replenished by violence

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Speaker 4: in a way, but at the same time, other forces,

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Speaker 4: including solar radiation, pressure, and solar winds are constantly pushing

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Speaker 4: atoms out of this thin exosphere into space. So what

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Speaker 4: little gas and vapor particles are liberated and floating around

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Speaker 4: above Mercury's surface. Lots of those are always getting blasted

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Speaker 4: off out into the dark. In fact, this brings me

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Speaker 4: to a thing I had no idea about before. Did

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Speaker 4: you know that under certain imaging conditions, Mercury actually has

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Speaker 4: a tail like a comet.

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Speaker 2: I did not know this, and I got excited at

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Speaker 2: first because I'm like, oh, wow, maybe this could factor

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Speaker 2: into some of what we're going to discuss mythologically, but

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Speaker 2: I guess it's not the case.

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Speaker 4: Well, unfortunately, this tail is not visible to the naked eye,

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Speaker 4: so it's not something that say, ancient peoples would have seen.

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Speaker 4: But of course Mercury was. It is one of the

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Speaker 4: naked eye visible planets. So you know, ancient peoples knew

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Speaker 4: about this planet. It wasn't one of those planets we

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Speaker 4: had to wait for the invention of the telescope to discover.

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Speaker 4: So you know, ancient peoples knew about Mercury for a

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Speaker 4: long time, but they could not see this tail. Because

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Speaker 4: you actually need a lens filter. I think you need

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Speaker 4: magnification too. Probably you need magnification and a lens filter

415
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Speaker 4: that helps you see the wavelength of yellow light emitted

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Speaker 4: by sodium atoms, because it seems that sodium atoms are

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Speaker 4: the most visible atoms found in this sun driven plume

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Speaker 4: pointing off of Mercury. But you get this process where

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Speaker 4: intense solar radiation liberates sodium from the planet's surface. Or

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Speaker 4: I think there are multiple factors, but you know, by

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Speaker 4: multiple factors, including radiation from the Sun, sodium gets liberated

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Speaker 4: from the surface and then these gas particles get pushed

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Speaker 4: out into space in this long trailing jet. And Rob,

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Speaker 4: I've got a couple of pictures you can look at

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Speaker 4: in the outline here. People at home, you can look

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Speaker 4: this up. Just look up mercury sodium tail and it

427
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Speaker 4: looks like a comet. It looks almost exactly like a comet.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's just zooming off into space. And in

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Speaker 4: the second picture I have for you here, Rob, you

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Speaker 4: can really see the the sodium yellow color.

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Speaker 3: Ooh nice.

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Speaker 4: Kind of a fascinating fact that I did not know before.

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Speaker 4: So Mercury the planet has a salty tail that is

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Speaker 4: millions of kilometers long, just bullied into space by the Sun.

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Speaker 2: Wow, as it speeds along its journey.

436
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,360
Speaker 4: Now we're going to continue to talk about physical features

437
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 4: of Mercury, and scientific research about the planet in future

438
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 4: parts of the series, but I think for the rest

439
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 4: of today, maybe we should talk a bit about the

440
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 4: literary and mythological history of Mercury and it's especially its

441
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 4: mythological counterparts.

442
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is always one of the fascinating areas of

443
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:51,479
Speaker 2: discussion about any of the naked eye visible planets, because

444
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,679
Speaker 2: you get into the history of observation as well, and

445
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:58,640
Speaker 2: how that observation factored into these different world views, and

446
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 2: you get kind of like, you know, a feedback loop

447
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,160
Speaker 2: between the two, like there are things observed about the cosmos,

448
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,679
Speaker 2: and then there are these ideas that could attach to

449
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 2: them deities and stories and so forth, and they can

450
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 2: kind of inform our understanding of each other to varying decrees,

451
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 2: you know, with the obvious difference being, of course that

452
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,680
Speaker 2: a planet or star does have a physical reality and

453
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 2: a god is something rather different. The planet Mercury is

454
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,399
Speaker 2: of course named for the Roman god Mercury, a counterpart

455
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 2: of the Greek Hermes. Mercury is the son of Jupiter

456
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,640
Speaker 2: and Maya, a Roman earth goddess, and he acts. We'll

457
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,120
Speaker 2: get into all the things he does, but in broad strokes,

458
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 2: and this is the version, like if you know virtually

459
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 2: nothing about the god, you know that he acts as

460
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 2: a messenger to and from the gods, and it is

461
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 2: also there are also all these other roles that he

462
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 2: ends up taking on as well, because he is also

463
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 2: a god of science and commerce as well as thieves

464
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 2: and rogues. He is, so he is a messenger and

465
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:04,440
Speaker 2: a thief, and Hermes has much the many of the

466
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 2: same connotations as we've discussed before. You know, you get

467
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 2: into the duality of Greek and Roman deities, you know,

468
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 2: there's there's often a lot more nuance, you know, like yeah,

469
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 2: you can say, like, okay, you know you have two

470
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 2: different gods of war, but there's a slightly different flavor

471
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 2: when you compare them, right, And there's there's a little

472
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 2: bit of that going on here as well. But Hermes

473
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 2: does have much of the same flavor. A god of

474
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 2: messengers and thieves, of those who travel not only in

475
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 2: this world but through the afterlife. And he is also

476
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,640
Speaker 2: a psychopomp as well, because he is one who can

477
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 2: traverse realms. He can move from Olympus to Earth to

478
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,120
Speaker 2: the underworld. And therefore, if you need somebody to take

479
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,919
Speaker 2: you part of the way to the afterlife, he is

480
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 2: the one that is going to be sent to do

481
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 2: it right.

482
00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 4: So psychopomp often is translated as like soul guide or

483
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 4: soul conductor. And we see scenes of this in ancient literature.

484
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 4: For example, in the Odyssey, in the scene where you know,

485
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 4: where Odysseus comes back and kills all of the suitors.

486
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 4: There is a scene in the Odyssey where Hermes comes

487
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 4: in and says, okay, souls, you're coming with me, and

488
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 4: rounds up the souls of all the suitors and leads

489
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 4: them there. They're kind of like baffled and wailing, and

490
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 4: he leads them into hell or into hades.

491
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 3: You know.

492
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know. Mercury is often credited, especially about

493
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 2: Roman authors such as Horace and Avid, as a culture

494
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 2: bearer of language and wrestling. So it's fascinating, really, all

495
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 2: told this trickster god, and he's a trickster, as we'll

496
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 2: get into, is a god of so many different things

497
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 2: of let's say, boundaries, shepherds, travel, roads, hospitality, diplomacy, trade, merchants, invention, thieves, orators,

498
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 2: wit and cunning, language and ripe again, wrestling, measurements, astrology

499
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 2: and astronomy, sleep in dreams, magic, fertility, athletics, gymnastics, guard dogs,

500
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 2: and much more.

501
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 3: That's almost too many things.

502
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting. There's this notion, and comic artist and

503
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 2: author George O'Connor covers this well in his Olympian series

504
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 2: hermis Tales of the Trickster. This is a series. I'll

505
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 2: hold it up for our viewers on video. This is

506
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 2: a series that my kiddo was very much into when

507
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 2: they were younger. And I've had Georgie O'Connor on the

508
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 2: show before and talk to him about his approach. He

509
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 2: really knows his stuff, really does as research. Highly recommend

510
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 2: the he's to anybody looking for a graphic novel treatment

511
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 2: of Greek mythology. But also he's gotten into Norse mythology

512
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 2: and I think has three volumes out, so wonderful stuff.

513
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 2: But he discusses this notion that Hermes, left to his

514
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 2: own devices, is going to cause mischief, is going to

515
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 2: get up to no good. And therefore Zeus keeps him

516
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 2: just very very busy with this whole grocery list of tasks,

517
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 2: always setting him out to, you know, to do this,

518
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 2: to spy in this person, to bring this person, drag

519
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 2: this person in, and it makes sense, given some of

520
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 2: the things he's he's charged with skill sets and areas

521
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 2: of culture that perhaps you could make a strong argument

522
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 2: they benefit from oversight of some sort or another. They

523
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 2: need to stay on task and busy, otherwise they might

524
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 2: get up to they might get into trouble.

525
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 4: That's a really interesting take. But I thought you were

526
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 4: going somewhere totally different when you said, like since as

527
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 4: a trickster. I thought you were going to say that

528
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 4: as a trickster, Hermes has bluffed his way into many

529
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 4: many jobs.

530
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 2: You know, that's an interesting I don't know if anybody's

531
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 2: ever given it that exact treatment.

532
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 4: Yes, I do have five years of expertise in gymnastics.

533
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 3: I know all about that, you know.

534
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, astrology too, I know about that.

535
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess I get the

536
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 2: the I get the idea from these various treatments of

537
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 2: Mercury and or Hermes that they they're very skilled at

538
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 2: the things they do, so they're not just bluffing their way.

539
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 2: But I think it also you could make the case

540
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 2: that as he is a traveler, uh and he has

541
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 2: he's and he has wit, and since he has those

542
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:16,320
Speaker 2: two things, they are all these different tasks that he

543
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 2: ends up taking on just because he is the one

544
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 2: that moves across the realms, and he has his wits

545
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 2: about him, so he has his cunning. Now I want

546
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 2: to read, uh, some some bits from from Roman poetry

547
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 2: about Mercury. Here, Uh, this one I'm gonna read from.

548
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 2: This is an as Kleine translation of Avid's FASTI from

549
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 2: this is from the year eight CE. And this one's

550
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 2: this one's really cool. It goes as follows, or this

551
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 2: is the excerpt goes as follows. Come Mercury, Atlas's famous grandson,

552
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: you whom apply ad once bore to jove among the

553
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 2: Arcadian hills, arbitr of war and peace to gods on

554
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 2: high and those below you who make your way with

555
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 2: winged feet hoo to light in the sounding liar and

556
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 2: the gleaming wrestling you through, who's teaching the tongue learned

557
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 2: eloquence on the odds. The Senate founded for you a

558
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 2: temple facing the circus. Since then today has been your festival.

559
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 2: All those who make a living trading their awares offer

560
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 2: you in since and beg you to swell their profits.

561
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 4: Man, I love the modifier of the word wrestling being leaming?

562
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 3: Is that for fun to oiled up bodies? Is that literally?

563
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 2: Like I'm assuming I didn't look at any alternate translations

564
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,720
Speaker 2: of this to see how it might be treated in

565
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 2: other translations. But that's that I love. It's certainly giving

566
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 2: me that mental imagery. And I was, I was examining

567
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 2: this a little bit. It's like, well, why is this

568
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 2: guy the one who brings wrestling to humanity? And I'm

569
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 2: to understand it has to do in a large part

570
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 2: with the cunning aspect of it. So wrestling grappling, you know,

571
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 2: if you're if you've never done it, or you don't

572
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 2: have a very close relationship with it, or I don't know,

573
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 2: you've never gotten into the details of it. You know,

574
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 2: you can just think of like it's brute strength. It's

575
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 2: just bodies slamming together. But of course there is cunning

576
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 2: in it. It is not just about the strength. That

577
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 2: is about then, like shifting out of holds and so forth.

578
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 2: And that seems to be what's bound up in this idea.

579
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 4: It's like having the right like grapples and a sort

580
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 4: of tactical knowledge of what to do.

581
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so this particular passage it refers to several

582
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 2: aspects of Mercury that are interesting. The sounding liar. He

583
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 2: is the inventor of the liar, the musical instrument made

584
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 2: from like a tortoise's shell and it's enterds. And then

585
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:46,480
Speaker 2: also the bringing of language. Also his association with trade

586
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 2: and profit. He's a god that you should lift up

587
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 2: if you want to make money in your business, which

588
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,840
Speaker 2: is fascinating as well. Also, again he's the traveler, so

589
00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 2: it makes sense he's very much involved in trade. Now. Physically,

590
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 2: he the depictions of him will vary to a certain extent,

591
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 2: but he's usually depicted as a youthful man in a

592
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,879
Speaker 2: winged cap. This is like a traveler sun hat because

593
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 2: he is a traveler with wings to denote swift and

594
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 2: unstoppable speed. He also has winged sandals. Again he's fast,

595
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,239
Speaker 2: you know, flying straight ahead. And he also carries the

596
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:26,280
Speaker 2: cadusius as a sign of neutral, independent travel as well

597
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 2: as a signifier of his status as messenger of the gods.

598
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 2: And of course the cadusius also brings with it other

599
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 2: powers that will refer to and just a bet. He

600
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 2: also frequently carries a purse or marsupium. This is a

601
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 2: coin bag, and this signifies his rule over commerce, so

602
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 2: you know he's he's carrying coin on him as well.

603
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 2: And again he is, to be sure, a cunning tricks

604
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 2: to God. And there are a number of stories in

605
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,800
Speaker 2: which he engages in trickery just to some form or another.

606
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,719
Speaker 2: One of them is, of course, when it occurs when

607
00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:59,760
Speaker 2: he is a baby. He is like like, he's baby

608
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:03,719
Speaker 2: mur And he steals the sacred cows of Apollo by

609
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 2: having them walk backwards, which is classic, right because in

610
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 2: the footprints of the cows make it seem like they

611
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 2: were going in the other direction.

612
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 3: Hmm.

613
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm impressed that somebody could tell what direction

614
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,040
Speaker 4: cows are going in by looking at the footprints.

615
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again he's a baby. This is kind of

616
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 2: an interesting trope onto itself, the trickster baby God or

617
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 2: you know, divine figure. It reminds me a bit of

618
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 2: some of the stories of Krishna as a baby being

619
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 2: something of a trickster.

620
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:33,800
Speaker 4: Oh, I thought you were going to say that. I

621
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 4: think you should leave sketch. He's one of the most

622
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 4: aggressive babies I've ever Yeah, he'd be one of the

623
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 4: most deceitful babies ever.

624
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 2: Well, this would be the case here as well. I

625
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 2: believe in that same encounter he turns a witness into

626
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,320
Speaker 2: stone to keep them from spilling the beans. There's also

627
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,080
Speaker 2: this is one that we've referred to on the show before,

628
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 2: perhaps in one of our episodes about mythological treatments of

629
00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 2: multi eyed entities. But he mesmerizes Argus the hundred eyed

630
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 2: giant into slumber in order to free a Io, and

631
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 2: then he goes ahead and murders the giant his way.

632
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 2: He slays the giant cold blooded while it sleeps, just

633
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 2: to be sure. He of course bribes the gods with

634
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 2: a liar, which he invents on the spot, you know,

635
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 2: created out of a tortoise to get out of some

636
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 2: of the punishment for the whole cattle incident. And in

637
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 2: classical poetry as well, he's always stealing the signature weapons

638
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 2: of various gods. So you know, whatever your you know,

639
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 2: your trident or what have you, if you leave it

640
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 2: setting around too long. And again, if Mercury doesn't have

641
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,800
Speaker 2: enough tasks on his grocery list, he might just steal

642
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 2: what you've got just for the heck of it.

643
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 4: Okay, so you can understand why he is also patron

644
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,280
Speaker 4: of thieves. He does a lot of yoinking himself.

645
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and yeah, he's more than just a mere

646
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 2: traveler or a mere messenger. Yeah, he's a god who

647
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 2: kind of does what he wants and goes where he wants.

648
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 2: And it's up to the gods and mortals if they

649
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 2: want to take advantage of this or not. According to

650
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:08,320
Speaker 2: the writings of Juvenile Marble, heads of Mercury were erected

651
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 2: on poles wherever two roads met. Again, he's a liminal

652
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,879
Speaker 2: god and a lord of thresholds. He can cross over

653
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 2: these dominions of Olympus Earth in the underworld, where others,

654
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 2: even other gods, cannot. Again, makes him an ideal psychopomp,

655
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 2: and he factors into various myths in which someone is

656
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:32,880
Speaker 2: crossing or made to cross between these barriers. And again,

657
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 2: the most of the imagery you encounter of him, and

658
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,399
Speaker 2: certainly the images that I encountered growing up depicted yeah

659
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 2: just kind of this, like youthful naked fella with a

660
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,040
Speaker 2: cap with wings on it and sandals with wings on it,

661
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:47,919
Speaker 2: which I have to admit, when I was a kid,

662
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 2: I tended to find this a little silly looking and

663
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 2: may think that might have factored into my sort of

664
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,160
Speaker 2: dismissal lot of and I think also in a lot

665
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 2: of the versions of the of, particularly the Greek myths

666
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 2: that I was reading, Hermes was just kind of relegated

667
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 2: to Messenger. And I don't know, I don't remember a

668
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 2: lot of direct exposure with more involved tales involving this figure,

669
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 2: this god, but there are some really really intense images

670
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:18,280
Speaker 2: of him out there. One particular painting that I recommend

671
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 2: looking up is The Souls of Asheron from eighteen ninety

672
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 2: eight by Adolf Hermi Herschel. You can find this online

673
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:27,879
Speaker 2: and off the top of my head, I'm not sure

674
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 2: where this one is collected as a physical painting or

675
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 2: if there are different versions of it. Is this sometimes

676
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 2: the case with these works, but this one is really

677
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 2: really intense. You see like the souls of the departed,

678
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 2: like Ashen and their coloration standing around this brilliant and

679
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 2: kind of brooding version of Mercury, and you see his

680
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 2: wing at him, you see the Cadusius and he has

681
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 2: these robes on. I feel like this image in particular

682
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:57,200
Speaker 2: captures a lot of the power of the figure that

683
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 2: you see and you read about in some of the

684
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:02,359
Speaker 2: like the works of the Roman poets, but is maybe

685
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: a little missing from some of our modern conceptions of

686
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 2: the figure.

687
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,839
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, this is full of dark, grieving pathos. That's

688
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 4: like seeing all the people reaching out to him and

689
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,399
Speaker 4: this kind of pleading posture. They're all below and he's

690
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 4: standing looking very impassive and be like he's he's not

691
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 4: providing much comfort to them.

692
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 2: It reminds me a little bit of what you were

693
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 2: talking about earlier. This is something that again ancient observers

694
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,800
Speaker 2: would not have known, but the idea that Mercury is

695
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 2: a planet that can be incredibly hot but also incredibly cold, right, Like,

696
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 2: he's very hot blooded and can be very passionate in

697
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:40,240
Speaker 2: some of the tales, you know, it's a fathering children

698
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 2: on the you know, in mid task at times, but

699
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 2: in this case, very cold to the people around him. Yeah,

700
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 2: the souls around him, and this darker side of Mercury. Yeah,

701
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 2: can definitely be found in the Roman literature considered. This

702
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 2: excellent quote from Virgils the Eneid, in which Mercury is

703
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:05,320
Speaker 2: essentially suiting up to enact Jupiter's will, goes as follows.

704
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 2: The god, the god being Mercury prepared to obey his

705
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:13,799
Speaker 2: great father's order and first fastened the golden sandals to

706
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:17,080
Speaker 2: his feet that carry him high on the wing over

707
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,600
Speaker 2: land and sea like the storm. Then he took up

708
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:24,359
Speaker 2: his wand he calls pale ghosts from Orcus with it,

709
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 2: sending others down to grim Tartarus gives and takes away

710
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 2: sleep and opens the eyes of the dead. So this

711
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,360
Speaker 2: really to me, like it seems to suggest an idea

712
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,279
Speaker 2: of Mercury as an enforcer, as a hit man or

713
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:43,880
Speaker 2: a bounty hunter, really reminding me in many ways of

714
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 2: the sort of form that certain angels, messenger angels, and

715
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,760
Speaker 2: angels of death take in like Judeo Christian traditions, where

716
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,920
Speaker 2: you know you never want to meet an angel because

717
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,919
Speaker 2: it's this terrifying entity. And likewise, this is against something

718
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 2: I didn't really I'd never thought about until this week

719
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 2: researching this episode. But Mercury feels like a god you

720
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 2: would never actually want to meet, because if you're meeting him,

721
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:09,839
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully you've just happened to meet him on

722
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 2: the way to something. But if he has been sent

723
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:16,920
Speaker 2: to you, well, probably nothing good is going to come

724
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 2: with it. I guess it depends on how well you

725
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:21,760
Speaker 2: sit with his father Jupiter.

726
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 3: Either way, it's a clutch tight your valuables.

727
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he also might steal something. Yeah, this is

728
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,440
Speaker 2: more of an aside really that I was reading that

729
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 2: there was a Roman practice of the mercury fig, and

730
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 2: this would be the devoting of the first fig of

731
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:43,840
Speaker 2: a tree's harvest to mercury, applied more generally at times

732
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,760
Speaker 2: to first fruits, first works, and the like, So essentially

733
00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 2: kind of like one for mercury. Reminds me a little

734
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 2: bit of how I think you will still see the

735
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 2: practice of a business will have that first dollar bill

736
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 2: that they make tacked up on the wall. That's essentially

737
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:11,200
Speaker 2: the mercury fig, let's see. And then I was reading

738
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 2: more there's a lot of interesting stuff concerning the worship

739
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:20,320
Speaker 2: of mercury in Roman gaul in Roman Britain. I was

740
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 2: reading a twenty nineteen paper published in Studio Antiqua at

741
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:31,800
Speaker 2: Archaeologica by Nadezda s. Shirokova. Again, this was twenty nineteen,

742
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 2: the cult of Mercury and Roman Gaul in Roman Britain,

743
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:39,680
Speaker 2: and this author points out that Mercury eventually becomes for

744
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,920
Speaker 2: a while the most popular deity of worship in Roman

745
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 2: Gaul in Roman Britain, And part of this seems due

746
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 2: to the fact that these were far flung corners of

747
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:52,120
Speaker 2: the Empire, and the people there would have you know,

748
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:54,920
Speaker 2: they had a heightened sense of the importance of travel

749
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,799
Speaker 2: and trade. You want a god with an eye on

750
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,359
Speaker 2: the supply chain, right. The author also points out that

751
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:04,839
Speaker 2: in both areas there was also a fusing of wing

752
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:11,240
Speaker 2: helmet Mercury with the Celtic hornet god of fertility, Also

753
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 2: differing from traditional vision of Mercury. In these areas, he

754
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 2: also became considered more of a guardian of military affairs,

755
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:21,440
Speaker 2: which the authors suggest might have to have more to

756
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 2: do with the synthesis of Celtic beliefs with Roman beliefs

757
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 2: and different Celtic gods. But I also couldn't help but think,

758
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:30,839
Speaker 2: and this is just me, that you could also see

759
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 2: this sort of metamorphosis taking place for people again that

760
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 2: would be acutely aware of the necessity of movement and

761
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 2: commerce for sustaining a far flung province, not only in

762
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:45,439
Speaker 2: terms of supplies, but also military protection. And in some

763
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:49,879
Speaker 2: cases Gollic Mercury had horns or antlers instead of those

764
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 2: hat bound wings in some cases he had three faces

765
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 2: emerging with Lucas, I believe, the Celtic god of trade

766
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 2: and crafts. So you see a number of these different

767
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 2: ways that Mercury becomes compared to and merged with some

768
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 2: of these indigenous deities. Now this is possibly confusing this

769
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 2: a little bit. Is the fact that if you read

770
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 2: the journals of Julius Caesar earlier, upon visiting the region,

771
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:25,879
Speaker 2: he wrote of the locals worshiping Mercury there. He this

772
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 2: is from Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic War. He says,

773
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 2: they principally worship the god Mercury. There are many images

774
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 2: of him. They regard him as the inventor of all arts.

775
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,280
Speaker 2: They consider him the guide of their journeys in march marches.

776
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:40,920
Speaker 2: They believe him to have to have very great power

777
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 2: for the acquisition of money and for trade. These, of course,

778
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 2: are all things that match up with Mercury. But basically

779
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: it seems like what was happening here is that Caesar

780
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:57,720
Speaker 2: was observing examples of Lucas or other gods among the

781
00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:01,399
Speaker 2: the the Gallic people, and then was just saying, oh,

782
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 2: that's Mercury, Like yeah, this sort of classic Roman synthesis

783
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:09,319
Speaker 2: of deities, which would go both ways, like interpreting other

784
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 2: gods as your gods, but then also borrowing or readily

785
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,320
Speaker 2: and incorporating the gods of others into your own pantheon.

786
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 4: Yeah and yeah, Romans did both both assumed equivalences and

787
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 4: absorbed what they encountered.

788
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:28,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's some more interesting details concerning the history

789
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:32,400
Speaker 2: of the I really found this interesting in this idea

790
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 2: that like sometimes the wings on his hat would become

791
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,360
Speaker 2: horns or antlers in comparison to these other gods, because

792
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 2: I did find some other sources that I may explore

793
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:45,880
Speaker 2: more for future episodes here talking about like the history

794
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 2: of showing wings on the head and it's comparison with horns,

795
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:52,760
Speaker 2: particularly when you get into into you know, purely Christian

796
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:57,239
Speaker 2: era like demonology and so forth. But perhaps more on

797
00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:00,760
Speaker 2: that later. Now, as we previously discussed the show, Mercury

798
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 2: is an elusive star to spot. It's actually the we

799
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 2: were just talking about this in our dog Day's episodes,

800
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 2: but it's actually the thirteenth brightest object in the sky.

801
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 2: But as Richard Talcott discusses in the Astronomy Magazine article,

802
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,360
Speaker 2: Mercury at its best in the evening sky from twenty twelve.

803
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 2: You know, it's still difficult to make out. You know,

804
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 2: it's bright and obviously number thirteen out of all those

805
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 2: stars up there, that's still something. But it's closer to

806
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 2: the Some than any other planet, as we've been discussing,

807
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:35,080
Speaker 2: So from our perspective, it never ventures much beyond the

808
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:37,920
Speaker 2: glare of the Sun and never appears fully against a

809
00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:41,600
Speaker 2: totally dark sky, So you could, despite its brightness, it's

810
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,560
Speaker 2: almost kind of like a deeper cut in most traditional

811
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 2: astronomies and astrologies like it was known of, but it

812
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:51,799
Speaker 2: was it was difficult to spot and maybe a little

813
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 2: more complicated to understand.

814
00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 4: Now I didn't make notes about this for this episode,

815
00:46:57,239 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 4: so I can't be certain, but it seems like I

816
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 4: remember reading some thing a long time ago that maybe

817
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 4: some of the ancients actually thought Mercury was two different stars.

818
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 4: Have you come across that.

819
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 2: I didn't come across that particularly. We may have to

820
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 2: come back to that. But there was this idea that

821
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 2: it was the leaping star, that it moved so much

822
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,319
Speaker 2: from night to because again it's it's fast moving and

823
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 2: has a tight orbit, and so from our perspective it

824
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 2: seems to move around with great speed, and so from

825
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:28,760
Speaker 2: night to night it could be in drastically different places,

826
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:33,400
Speaker 2: which again feeds and then feeds off of this idea

827
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 2: of a deity that has great speed.

828
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, certainly I see the association between the

829
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,279
Speaker 4: speed of the actual planet's orbit and the speed of

830
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 4: the god, you know, the winged god, the fast moving messenger.

831
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,919
Speaker 4: But the distinction I remember reading was something about there

832
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:55,399
Speaker 4: being a confusion that like Mercury was separately like an

833
00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,400
Speaker 4: evening star and a morning star. And then later there

834
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 4: was the connection that, oh, these are actually the same

835
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:03,400
Speaker 4: object that we're seeing in some cases in the in

836
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 4: the morning, you know, before dawn, in some cases at night.

837
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll have to come back to that then and

838
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:13,480
Speaker 2: look at that in more detail. So obviously, yeah, humans

839
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,560
Speaker 2: have been observing Mercury, the planet Mercury, for a very

840
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 2: long time, observing it well before the idea of a

841
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 2: god named Mercury, because yeah, the Romans end up in

842
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:27,040
Speaker 2: inventing the name Mercury well after Hermis, so Hermes comes first,

843
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 2: Romans create Mercury. I believe the route there MRK is

844
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 2: related to like commerce and trade, as they absorb some

845
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:38,760
Speaker 2: of these ideas about Hermes. But the oldest recording recorded

846
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:42,280
Speaker 2: sightings of Mercury date back to the fourteenth century BCE

847
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:48,320
Speaker 2: and the likely Assyrian mold dot appen tablets. If I'm

848
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 2: saying this out loud correctly, we've talked about these before,

849
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:52,759
Speaker 2: and I can't remember how we actually said this. Is

850
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:55,480
Speaker 2: it mold dot appen or just mold appen tablets.

851
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:57,360
Speaker 4: Mold dot appen like it's a web address.

852
00:48:57,640 --> 00:48:58,280
Speaker 3: It's a web address.

853
00:48:58,400 --> 00:48:59,920
Speaker 2: Don't try it. I don't know where it dot happened.

854
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:06,400
Speaker 2: But in these we have the oldest recorded sightings of Mercury,

855
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 2: but also the oldest recorded traditions of the planet being

856
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:16,640
Speaker 2: associated with concepts of wisdom, and particularly they deal with

857
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:21,320
Speaker 2: the Babylonian d d Nabu, son of Marduk, whose agility

858
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 2: of the mind was linked with the observed speed of

859
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,399
Speaker 2: the planet, which again was sometimes called the leaping Star

860
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 2: due to its speed. Again, Mercury fastest planet in our

861
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 2: solar system eighty eight day year, and this is this

862
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 2: is observable and its apparent location in the night sky

863
00:49:39,719 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 2: again shifts a lot night tonight based on this fast

864
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:47,640
Speaker 2: small orbit, earning it this traveler's reputation and this Nabu

865
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:52,280
Speaker 2: connection becomes the foundation of these various other connections between

866
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,680
Speaker 2: the planet and God associated with speed or wisdom. So

867
00:49:56,360 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 2: out of Nabu eventually comes Hermes, for example. And yet

868
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 2: there are actually multiple examples of this that can be

869
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:07,080
Speaker 2: tied into this tradition, not only Mercury and Hermes and

870
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:11,040
Speaker 2: the Greco Roman tradition, but also Buddha, not to be

871
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:14,480
Speaker 2: confused with the Buddha like the historic Buddha, not Buddha

872
00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:17,480
Speaker 2: with two d's, but Buddha with one d. You'll find

873
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:22,240
Speaker 2: this personification in the Vedic Hindu tradition, and I believe

874
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 2: Ganesha is sometimes associated with mercury as well, and Ganesha

875
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,400
Speaker 2: is also associated with wisdom to a very large degree.

876
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 2: In the Norse tradition, you have Odin, of course, also

877
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 2: associated with wisdom, and then in ancient Egypt eventually thought

878
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:43,000
Speaker 2: as well. But this only applies to later traditions, as

879
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 2: the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic is primarily lunar,

880
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:51,040
Speaker 2: but the Greco Roman and later Occultist traditions recast him

881
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 2: as mercury aligned. So this is again one of those

882
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:57,800
Speaker 2: cases where you know myths change, myths respond to other myths.

883
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 2: Myths respond to obs in the night sky as well,

884
00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 2: but mercury is more traditionally associated with set or set

885
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:12,360
Speaker 2: in ancient Egypt. Now, the Chinese treatment of mercury was

886
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,239
Speaker 2: seemingly somewhat unique and set apart from these traditions, seemingly

887
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 2: unrelated disconnected from those ideas. It was the so called

888
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:23,520
Speaker 2: hour star, and it was connected to concepts of water,

889
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:29,320
Speaker 2: winter and astrological connections to unexpected legal or military shifts

890
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:34,320
Speaker 2: or even natural disasters. Meanwhile, you also find some fascinating

891
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:37,400
Speaker 2: traditions in the Americas, and I might have to come

892
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:38,920
Speaker 2: back to some more of these, but some of the

893
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:42,240
Speaker 2: big ones that are often brought up. Myan traditions also

894
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,799
Speaker 2: focused on its speed, seeing mercury as being aligned with

895
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:49,319
Speaker 2: the owl and being a psychopomp. And then the Aztecs

896
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 2: focused primarily on its proximity to the sun, so you know,

897
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 2: picking up on the fact that it is solar aligned

898
00:51:56,719 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 2: and therefore perhaps some manner of like minor so deity.

899
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,480
Speaker 2: So that's just a brief overview focusing mostly on the

900
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:08,880
Speaker 2: Roman mercury given our use of the Roman names and

901
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,600
Speaker 2: the naming of the planets. But I feel like just

902
00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:15,720
Speaker 2: Roman Mercury alone is such a fascinating god and again

903
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:19,000
Speaker 2: one that I feel like I've not paid enough attention

904
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:21,840
Speaker 2: to over the years, Mercury or Hermes, where when you

905
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 2: dig down into it a really fascinating, you know, at

906
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 2: times funny and at times frightening individual and member of

907
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:30,719
Speaker 2: the pantheon.

908
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:34,680
Speaker 4: Absolutely so, I think we'll have to keep this rather

909
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:38,720
Speaker 4: large host of associations in mind as we rather explore

910
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:41,840
Speaker 4: the planet itself. What exactly is it about the planet

911
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:47,719
Speaker 4: Mercury that's not only messenger, fleet footed, thief, trickster, but

912
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 4: maybe gleaming wrestler, maybe a little bit you know, trade

913
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 4: in commerce.

914
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 3: I don't know. I bet we'll see a lot of

915
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 3: angles there.

916
00:52:56,320 --> 00:53:00,279
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we'll get into the history of pro that

917
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:03,640
Speaker 2: have been sent to Mercury or near Mercury. We'll get

918
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:06,040
Speaker 2: into that again. We'll talk a little bit about science

919
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:09,279
Speaker 2: fiction as well as just ideas of regarding well, if

920
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 2: life did exist there, how would that even look what

921
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:14,960
Speaker 2: would that even look like? In the same question regarding

922
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 2: possible human visitation and or colonization of the.

923
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 3: World, I don't think it's near the top of the list.

924
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 3: I don't think so.

925
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 2: But you know, the human mind, you know, in the

926
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:29,240
Speaker 2: spirit of Mercury, the cunning. We can't help but apply

927
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:33,440
Speaker 2: ourselves to that scenario, like, yeah, we probably shouldn't. We

928
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,360
Speaker 2: almost maybe we couldn't, but we've got to sort of

929
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 2: peace out exactly how we might attempt it. We can't

930
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 2: help ourselves.

931
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 3: All right, does that do it for today?

932
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,439
Speaker 2: I think it does. We're going to go and close

933
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 2: this episode out, but stay tuned. There will be more

934
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 2: Mercury episodes in the future. Here in the meantime, we

935
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:54,919
Speaker 2: would just remind you as usual that Stuff to Blow

936
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 2: Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with

937
00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:00,840
Speaker 2: core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short form episode on Wednesdays,

938
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 2: and then on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns,

939
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:05,600
Speaker 2: So just talk about a weird film on Weird House

940
00:54:05,600 --> 00:54:07,920
Speaker 2: Cinema wherever you get the show, if you get the

941
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:12,480
Speaker 2: audio version, wherever you get your podcast, rate review, subscribe.

942
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:16,200
Speaker 2: That just helps us out. Likewise, if you watch and

943
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 2: view the show on Netflix, we are in video form

944
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:21,279
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945
00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 2: of thumbs up, and you have to be reminded about

946
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:23,920
Speaker 2: new episodes.

947
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:28,360
Speaker 4: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

948
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:30,279
Speaker 4: If you would like to get in touch with us

949
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:32,840
Speaker 4: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

950
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:34,800
Speaker 4: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

951
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:37,839
Speaker 4: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

952
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:45,919
Speaker 4: your Mind dot com.

953
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:48,960
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954
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:51,840
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955
00:54:52,000 --> 00:55:09,640
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