Mercury (whose name is connected to our word merchant) was an important god for trade and business. He was the son of Jupiter. He is similar to the Greek god Hermes, the winged messenger.

Mercury was not one of the first gods the Romans adopted from the ancient Greeks. But he appears in the 3rd century BC. He had winged shoes and carried the herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo's gift to (Greek) Hermes.

Mercury was often shown with a cockerel, the herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell.

Mercury was also a messenger of the gods and a god of trade . He also conducted the souls of the dead to the world of the afterlife.

Mercury's main temple was by the markets and race track in Rome called the Circus Maximus. It was built in 495 BC.