ABSTRACT
In the first of two ‘Afterwards’ chapters, the effects of three newly emerging ways of understanding the gods (allegory, astrology, alchemy), which arose in the Hellenistic period, are considered for the impact they had on the reception of Hermes/Mercury from late antiquity through to the end of the eighteenth century. Each interpretative method and its effects is considered separately in order to demonstrate how collectively they worked to distance the god from his powers and turn him into either a poetic device, a metal or a planet.
