December 31st- Hermes

In a time of year when many of us are making journeys to see family and friends we should all be paying tribute to Hermes, god of journeys and travellers. Wearing winged sandals he can travel between the worlds of the mortals and the divine. He was also patron of shepherds and their flocks, so a god we can all firmly get behind!

The son of Zeus and Maia the nymph, he also had numerous children. Including Pan, god of the wild, who was famously half man half goat. He was also father to Evander, who bought Greek gods, laws, mythology and the Greek alphabet to ancient Italy. He founded the city of Pallantium on the future site of the Palantine Hill, Rome. Greek gods usually have a Roman equivalent, Zeus becomes Jupiter, Hestia becomes Vesta, Hermes becomes Mercury etc.
He's usually depicted wearing a travellers round hat, cloak, but most importantly his caduceus. 

The staff is entwined with two serpents and topped with a pair of wings. It's now often used as a symbol of commerce, and mistakenly in some places as a symbol of medicine. At some point it became conflated with the  Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and no wings. Asclepius was the god associated with healing and medicine. 

This is the limited edition shade of Superfine Merino & Silk for today. You can find it in the online shop until stocks run out, and as always it forms part of the Buy 2 Get a third half price offer available on this fibre blend. I am happy to combine orders, but will need you to add a note when you purchase each day. I usually have a lot of orders to process on the first day back and without a note it's highly likely I will miss that you have multiple orders.