CIMRM 821 - Statuette of Mercury with sheep. Walbrook Mithraeum, London, Britain
See also: CIMRM 810-811 Tauroctony; 812 Cloaked figure; 813 Oceanus; 814 Mithraeum; 815 Mithras head; 816 Cautopates fragment; 817 Torso of deity; 818 Serapis head + 2 hands; 819 Circular plaque; 820 Minerva head; 821 Mercury statuette; 822-823 Dionysius, Silenus statue; 824 Sandstone bowl; 825 Inscription; 826 Inscription; Supp. Silver box + strainer; Pottery; Lead bull;
From: Museum of London: Statue of Mercury with sheep. Found in 1954 at the east end of the temple of Mithras discovered under Bucklersbury House EC4 London. Mercury escorted the dead from Earth to paradise. He is seated on a rock holding a money bag, his symbol as patron of commerce. He is accompanied by a ram and a tortoise. The ram is a symbol of fertility, the tortoises, whose shells were used to make lyres, may illustrate the eternal happiness or the afterlife as promised by Mithraism.
CIMRM entry
821. A small marble statuette. Naked Mercury sitting on a rock. In the hair of his head are the stumps of wings, in his l.h. is a purse, beside the forefeet of a ram, which is lying down at the god's feet, is a tortoise (ILN, 636).
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