Merkury – מרקוליס

Abstract

Mercury, the Roman god of merchants and wayfarers, identified with the Greek god Hermes, occupies a relatively conspicuous place in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Rabbis seem to have been confronted quite often with sites dedicated to this pagan god and repeatedly warn against his worship. It was common for people either to add stones to mounds that had been erected in honour of Mercury alongside roads or to place gifts onto stone tables that had been dedicated to Mercury. If Mercury is discussed by rabbis more than any other pagan deity, it is probably due to the important roles played by Jewish merchants, wayfarers, and rabbis who travelled continuously along the silk roads connecting Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, and northern Arabia. It is unlikely that sentences of death by lapidation were ever carried out as punishiment for this possible idolatrous behaviour, as Jewish courts in Roman times were deprived of the right to pass and carry out death sentences. In effect, the warnings against idolatry had only moral and religious significance.