The Aeneid (1-140)

Earlier in the year we read The Odyssey, a story of a Greek hero escaping troy and having a perilous journey home. The Aeneid is a very similar story, but instead of a victiorious greek excaping, it is a fleeing trojan named Aeneas. In This portion, Jupiter sends Mercury, his messanger, to go talk to aeneas, and i particularly liked the description here.

Jove had spoken. Mercury made ready at once to obey the reat commands of his almighty father. First he fastens under his feet the golden sandals, winged to sweep him over the waves and earth alike with the rush of gusting winds. Then he seizes the was that calls the pallid psirits up from the underworld and ushers others down to the grim dark depths, the wand that lends us sleep or sends it away, that unseals our eyes in death. Equipped with this, he spurs the winds and swims through billowing clouds till in mid-flight he spies the summit and rugged flanks of Atlas, whose long-enduring peak supports the skies.

I really like the imagery the Virgil uses, and the translation by Fagles. It gives a sense that Mercury, like the other Gods, has unfathomable power over the Human Race, and can fly through the air like a regular old super hero. his wand , or caduceus, is somethihng i have found very interesting in other passages, for there are so many uses for it. He can lead the dead to the underworld, or summon the winds.