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Mythology in Marble

Chapter 131: INTERPRETATION.
By Louie M. Bell
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About This Book

A concise guide that pairs brief retellings of classical myths with descriptive analyses of the marble sculptures inspired by them, offering readers accessible explanations of how narrative themes inform pose, expression, and iconography. Each entry includes notes on artistic features and provenance alongside poetic quotations and illustrations to reinforce popular interpretations. Practical tools such as a table of Greek and Roman deity equivalents and a suggested reading list are appended to aid further study. The overall aim is to equip museumgoers and general readers with the background needed to appreciate mythological sculpture without requiring specialized art-historical training.

Mercury.

“Foot-feathered Mercury appeared sublime
Beyond the tall tree-tops, and in less time
Than shoots the slanted hailstones down he dropt,
One moment from his home; only the sward
He with his wand light touched, and heavenward
Swifter than the flight was gone.”
—Keats.

STORY.
THE INVENTOR.

Mercury was not only the swift messenger of the gods, but presided over commerce, wrestling and other gymnastic exercises, and was the giver of sweet sleep. To him was ascribed the invention of the lyre. He found one day a tortoise of which he took the shell, made holes in the opposite edges, drew cords of linen through, and lo, the instrument was complete. The cords were nine in number in honor of the nine Muses.

“So there it lay, through wet and dry,
As empty as the last new sonnet,
Till by and by came Mercury,
And having mused upon it,
‘Why here,’ cried he, ‘the thing of things,
In shape, material and dimension,
Give it but strings and lo it sings,
A wonderful invention.’
So said, so done; the cords he strained
And as his fingers o’er them hovered,
The shell disdained a soul had gained,
The lyre had been discovered.
O empty world that round us lies,
Dead shell of soul and thought forsaken,
Brought we but eyes like Mercury’s,
In thee what songs would waken.”
—Lowell.

INTERPRETATION.

Mercury was the wind, and the music he invented was the “melody of the winds which can awaken feelings of joy and sorrow, of regret and yearning, of fear and hope, of vehement gladness and of utter despair.”

ART.

Chapu has here shown Mercury as a beautiful, vigorous youth with two light wings quivering on his head and winged sandals on his feet, emblematic of his swiftness. He is touching the ground with his magic wand round which two serpents entwine themselves.

The statue is in the Luxembourg.