Talaria
The Talaria of Mercury (Template:Langx) or The Winged Sandals of Hermes (Template:Langx, Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang".) are winged sandals, a symbol of the Greek messenger god Hermes (Roman equivalent Mercury). They were said to be made by the god Hephaestus of imperishable gold and they flew the god as swift as any bird.[citation needed]
Etymology
The Latin noun Script error: No such module "Lang"., neuter plural of Script error: No such module "Lang". signifies "of the ankle". It is not quite certain how the Romans arrived at the meaning of "winged sandals" from this, possibly that the wings were attached at the ankles, or the sandals were tied around the ankles.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Attestations
In ancient Greek literature, the sandals of Hermes are first of all mentioned by Homer (Script error: No such module "Lang".; Script error: No such module "Lang"., "immortal/divine and of gold"), though not described as "winged".[2]Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
The description of the sandals being winged first appear in the poem Shield of Heracles (c. 600 – 550 BC), which speaks of Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang".), literally "winged sandals".Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.[3] The Homeric hymn to Hermes from a somewhat later date (520 BC) does not explicitly state the sandals were winged, though they allowed him to leave no footprints while committing his theft of Apollo's cattle.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
According to one estimation, it was around 5th century BC when the winged sandals came to be regarded as common (though not indispensable) accoutrements of the god Hermes.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. One later instance which refers to the sandals being winged is the Orphic Hymn XXVIII to Hermes (c. 2nd/3rd century AD).[4]Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Perseus wears Hermes' sandals to help him slay Medusa.[5] According to Aeschylus, Hermes gives them to him directly.[6] In a better-attested version, Perseus must retrieve them from the Graeae, along with the cap of invisibility and the Script error: No such module "Lang". (sack).[7]
On early Greek vase paintings, Hermes is shown wearing boots with a curved piece attached to the top edge of each one. This feature seems to be a pull strap for the boots rather than a simple or crude depiction of a wing.[8]
During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Hermes was sometimes depicted with wings fastened directly to his bare ankles.[8]
Latin sources
The term talaria has been employed by Ovid in the 1st century, and prior to him, in perhaps eight instances by various Latin authors (Cicero, Virgil, etc.).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The term is usually construed as "winged sandals", and applied almost exclusively to the footwear worn by the god Hermes/Mercury or the hero Perseus.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Medieval interpretation
In the case of the talaria worn by the swift runner Atalanta (Ovid, Metamorphoses X.591) some translators in the past steered away from recognizing them as footwear, and chose to regard them as "long robes, reaching to the ankle", starting with Planudes in the 14th century. This interpretation was also endorsed in the 17th century by Nicolaas Heinsius's gloss, and persisted in the 19th century with Lewis and Short's dictionary entry for this particular passage.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. But there are "insuperable" reasons against this "robes" interpretation, for Ovid clearly states in the foregoing passages that Atalanta had disrobed[a] to engage in the foot-race.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.[b]
Also in the medieval Irish versions of the Aeneid (Imtheachta Aeniasa) and the Destruction of Troy (Togail Troí), Mercury wears a "bird covering" or "feather mantle" (Template:Langx), which clearly derives from Mercury's talaria, such as described by Virgil.[9][10][c]
Sometimes, it has been interpreted that Hermes feet are winged, rather that the wings being part of his sandals.[11]
See also
- EADS Talarion an unmanned air vehicle named after talaria.
- Hermes also wears a winged petasos, a traveler hat. In other representations he wears a winged helmet.
- Caduceus, the staff of Hermes
- Namor the Sub-Mariner, a comic book character depicted with wings on his ankles.
Explanatory notes
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- ^ Template:Langx
- ^ However, the reading Atalanta as racing naked (as Anderson insists) is rejected in favor of a more "modest interpretation" by certain translators (F. Bernini 1943, T. Morino 1946), who perceive Atalanta as still clothed (in talaraia), which were seen to have "moved" (Template:Langx) or were "tossed aside" (Template:Langx by her fast-moving feet.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
- ^ Whitley Stokes (1881) pointed to the parallel to the fjaðrhamr (feather cloak) of Old Norse texts.[9]
References
- Citations
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- ^ Gantz, 541.
- ^ Homer, Odyssey, V, 44.
- ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles, 220.
- ^ Orphic Hymn 28, v. 4
- ^ Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fables (LXIV) and Nonnus, Dionysiaca, (XIV, 270).
- ^ Aeschylus, The Phorkides, fr. 262 iv, v Radt.
- ^ Pherecydes, 3F11 Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, and the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), II, 4, 2.
- ^ a b A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Talaria
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Miles, Brent (2011). Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland. Cambridge: DS Brewer. pp. 75–76. ISBN 1843842645. ISSN 0261-9865.
- ^ eDIL, s.v. "énchendach". "bird-covering, feather mantle.. [but] in the following exx. the meaning seems transferred, wings, feathers; a winged thing.. rogab [Mercuir] a enceandaigh uime...┐ gabaid a luirg n-encheandaighi ina laim (i.e., the talaria and caduceus), Aen.[Imtheachta Aeniasa] 766–7 .. encennach Mercúir, cumma imthéit muir ┐ tír, LL 220 b26 = TTr. [Togail Troi] 258 ."
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wasson, Donald L (2018-11-06). "Mercury (Deity)". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
[...] his winged feet giving him the advantage of speed, and so was the patron of circulation in general - of people, goods and messages.
- Bibliography
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- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Anderson, William S. (1966). "Talaria and Ovid Met. 10.591". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 97: 1–13. doi:10.2307/2935997. JSTOR 2935997.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Freedman, Luba (2014–2015), "'Argicida Mercurius' from Homer to Giraldi and from Greek Vases to Sansovino", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 2014/2015, vol. 59/60, University of Michigan Press for the American Academy in Rome, pp. 181–254, JSTOR 44981977
- Gantz, Timothy (2004). Mythes de la Grèce archaïque, Berlin. pp. 541–543.
External links
- Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons
