Talaria

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.

A 19th-century engraving of talaria.
One of the oldest known representations:[1] Perseus, wearing the talaria and carrying the kibisis over his shoulder, turns his head to kill Medusa on this Orientalizing relief pithos, c. 660 BCE, Louvre.

Etymology

The Latin noun tālāria, neuter plural of tālāris signifies "of the ankle". It is not quite certain how the Romans arrived at the meaning of "winged sandals" from this, possibly that the wings were attached at the ankles, or the sandals were tied around the ankles.[2]

Attestations

The sandals of Hermes are mentioned in Homer, who describes them as ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια (ambrósia khrýseia, "immortal/divine and of gold"), but does not described them as "winged".[2][3] The description of the sandals being winged first appear in the poem Shield of Heracles, which speaks of πτερόεντα πέδιλα (pteróenta pédila), literally "winged sandals".[2][4] Later authors repeat this characteristic, for instance in the Orphic Hymns XXVIII (to Hermes).[5]

Perseus wears Hermes' sandals to help him slay Medusa.[6] According to Aeschylus, Hermes gives them to him directly.[7] In a better-attested version, Perseus must retrieve them from the Graeae, along with the cap of invisibility and the kibisis (sack).[8]

Latin sources

The term talaria has been employed by Ovid in the 1st century, and prior to him, in perhaps 8 instances by various Latin authors (Cicero, Virgil, etc.).[9] The term is usually construed as "winged sandals", and applied almost exclusively to the footwear worn by the god Hermes/Mercury or the hero Perseus.[10]

Medieval interpretation

In the case of the talaria worn by the swift runner Atalanta (Ovid, Metamorphoses X.591) some translators in the past steered away from recognizing them as footwear, and chose to regard them as "long robes", starting with Planudes in the 14th century. This interpretation was also endorsed in the 17th century by Nicolaas Heinsius's gloss, and persisted in the 19th century with Lewis and Short's dictionary entry for this particular passage.[11]

In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, the Talaria is a pair of sneakers worn by Grover Underwood.[12]

In God of War III, Kratos forcibly takes the Boots of Hermes off the Messenger God's feet by cutting his legs off.

See also

References
Citations
  1. Gantz, 541.
  2. Anderson (1966), p. 8.
  3. Homer, Odyssey, V, 44.
  4. Pseudo-Hesiod, Shield of Heracles, 220.
  5. I, 583 and II, 730.
  6. Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fables (LXIV) and Nonnus, Dionysiaca, (XIV, 270).
  7. Aeschylus, The Phorkides, fr. 262 iv, v Radt.
  8. Pherecydes, 3F11 Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, and the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), II, 4, 2.
  9. Anderson (1966), p. 7.
  10. Anderson (1966), p. 5.
  11. Anderson (1966), pp. 1–2.
  12. Riordan, Rick (July 1, 2005). The Lightning Thief. United States Of America: Puffin Books Disney-Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-5629-7.
Bibliography
  • Anderson, William S. (1966). "Talaria and Ovid Met. 10.591". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 97: 1–13. JSTOR 2935997.
  • Gantz, Timothy (2004). Mythes de la Grèce archaïque, Berlin. pp. 541-543.
  • Media related to Talaria at Wikimedia Commons
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