god
Mercury
also: Меркурий, Hermes
The Roman god of commerce, trickery, travel, and messengers (Greek Hermes), son of Maia and Jupiter/Zeus; his mythic patronage of merchants and swindlers underlies Chekhov's jab calling him a "stock-exchange hare and wheeler-dealer."
Reading notes
- On May §9 Mercury
The Roman god of commerce, trickery, and messengers (Greek Hermes), son of Maia and Zeus/Jupiter; Chekhov's jab calling him a "stock-exchange hare and wheeler-dealer" plays on Mercury's mythic patronage of merchants and swindlers alike.
- On June and July §10 Mercury
The Roman god of commerce, trickery, and messengers (Greek Hermes); Chekhov gives him a mock civil-service rank ("a second-class god") and casts him as patron of pawnbrokers and cardsharps, continuing the almanac-piece's running joke of filing myth as bureaucratic biography.