Talaria
symbol of the Greek messenger god Hermes (Roman equivalent Mercury)
The Talaria of Mercury (Latin: tālāria) or The Winged Sandals of Hermes (Ancient Greek: πτηνοπέδῑλος, ptēnopédilos or πτερόεντα πέδιλα, pteróenta pédila) 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.
Etymology
The Latin noun tālāria is the neuter plural of the adjective tālāris, meaning 'of the ankle'. It is unclear how the Romans came to use tālāria to refer to winged sandals; they may have done so because the sandals' wings were attached at the ankles.
Attestations
In ancient Greek literature, the sandals of Hermes are first of all mentioned by Homer (ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια; ambrósia khrýseia, "immortal/divine and of gold"), though not described as "winged".
The description of the sandals being winged first appear in the poem Shield of Heracles (c. 600 – 550 BC), which speaks of πτερόεντα πέδιλα (pteróenta pédila), literally "winged sandals". 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.
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. One later instance which refers to the sandals being winged is the Orphic Hymn XXVIII to Hermes (c.
“Talaria” enters the record as symbol of the Greek messenger god Hermes (Roman equivalent Mercury). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Talaria, symbol and Greek can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Talaria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.