Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
MERCU'RIUS, a character of the Latin mythology, identical with the Greek Hermes, the god of eloquence and lying, of commerce and cheating. An old myth told a story of Jupiter and Mercurius once wandering about unrecognized in Phrygia, and this myth, which probably belonged to the folk-lore of Asia Minor, led the simple people of Lystra to mistake Barnabas and Paul for the two pagan deities. Acts 14:11-13.