Hermes (Mercury)

Folklore & Mythology Figure

Documented in Fuller’s letters, books, memoirs

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Representative documentary evidence

1819—

Letter to Ellen Kilshaw

read

“As the slow messenger Mercury will soon bend his course toward England [...] (whether he is faithful I know not but I know he is not nearly as swift as his namesake the messenger of the gods)”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller names the ship Mercury and then deliberately glosses the mythological reference: "not nearly as swift as his namesake the messenger of the gods." This demonstrates her knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology at age 9, identifying Mercury/Hermes by his divine epithet.

1839—

L-2 [Letter 239, 25 November 1839, To unknown]

quoted

“the first time was the genealogy of heaven and earth, then the will (Jupiter); the Understanding, (Mercury) Second, the celestial inspiration of genius, perception and transmission of divine law (Apol”

L-2 [Letter 239, 25 November 1839, To unknown]

1843—

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

read

“a speech worthy of Shakspeare's Cloten, or the infant Mercury, up to everything from the cradle, as you please to take it.”

Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.

Inferred Fuller alludes to the myth of Mercury / Hermes as an infant prodigy thief: on the day of his birth he escaped his cradle, stole Apollo's cattle, and displayed universal cunning.

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p137

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“Miss Fuller had proposed the Grecian Mythology as the subject of the first conversations [...] He saw the oreads, naiads, nereids [...] Prometheus was made the type of Pure Reason; Jupiter, of Will; Juno, the passive side of the same, or Obstinacy; Minerva, Intellectual Power, Practical Reason; Mercury, Executive Power, Understanding; Apollo was Genius, the Sun; Bacchus was Geniality, the Earth's answer.”

Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.

“Her general idea was, that, upon the Earth-worship and Sabaeanism of earlier ages, the Grecian genius acted to humanize and idealize, but, still, with some regard to the original principle.”

Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.