We call quicksilver ‘mercury’ for the same reason as the planet, because “all things are filled with gods: things on earth, with heavenly gods, and things in heaven, with gods beyond heaven.”¹ Olympiodorus, one of the earliest authorities, still omits quicksilver, assigning lead to Saturn, electrum to Jupiter, iron to Mars, gold to the Sun, copper to Venus, tin to Mercury, and silver to the Moon.² However, later authorities set aside electrum (an alloy of gold and silver), turn tin over to Jupiter, and introduce quicksilver as mercurial, while the other assignments are left unchanged.

Hermes, along the same lines, “in his sacred book entitled Wing, named as the seven incenses: storax for Saturn, because it is heavy and fragrant; malabathrum for Jupiter; costus for Mars; frankincense for the Sun; Indian nard for Venus; cassia for Mercury; and myrrh for the Moon.”³ Today, the nard plant is threatened by overharvesting, but this should be no obstacle for us. “Indeed, countryfolk and many peoples propitiate the gods with milk and with salted meal, because they do not have frankincense, and it has never been a fault for anyone to worship the gods by whatever means they can.”⁴

For my part, I follow Hermes to the extent that I offer storax on Saturdays, frankincense on Sundays, and myrrh on Mondays — when I am not being neglectful. On the other weekdays, I am less particular, since there is no authority that says, because one god is specially assigned costus or malabathrum, he cannot be offered a different incense that is to hand. In the Orphic Hymns, we also find storax for Saturn, and frankincense for the Sun, but both storax and frankincense for Jupiter; fragrant herbs (arṓmata) for the Moon, but myrrh for marine gods. In the same collection, frankincense is prescribed for Mars and Mercury, while the suffumigation for Venus has been lost.⁵ I note that Servius records, “to Paphian Venus, who is worshipped on Cyprus, sacrifice is made only of frankincense and flowers.”⁶

Manetho listed “the seven flowers of the seven stars” as “marjoram, lily, lotus, erephýllinon, narcissus, white violet, rose.”⁷ But the same list is also given in the order “rose, lotus, narcissus, lily, erephýllinon, white violet, marjoram”,⁸ and we have no way of telling which flower he consecrated to which planet. Whatever Manetho (or pseudo-Manetho) wanted, everyone knows that the rose belongs to Venus as much as the morning star:

“You may wonder if the dawn steals its red from the roses,
Or bestows it on them, and the rising day paints the flowers.
One dew, one color, one morning belongs to the two:
For Venus is the one lady of the star and the flower.
Perhaps also one odor; but that one, much higher, is dispersed
By the winds, and this, being much closer, wafts.
Paphië, common goddess of the star and goddess of the flower,
Decrees that their attire must be of the same purple.”⁹

Or in the rhymed translation of John Ashmore (1621):

“Whether the Rose Auror’, or she hath dy’d
The Rose with maidens-blush, tis not yet try’d.
Their Deaw, their Colour, and their Morn is one:
And both from Venus have protection.
Perhaps their savour’s one: i’th’aire, That’s spent;
This, neerer us, hath a farre sweeter sent.
One Goddess guides the Star, and the Flowre, too.
And, clad in Scarlet liveries, both goe.”¹⁰

The flower, it is said, was once Adonis. “And the myth about him is as follows: on Cyprus, there reigned Cinyras, having a daughter by the name of Myrrha; who by the Sun’s anger fell in love with her father, with whom, through the assistance of her nurse, she had intercourse. For Myrrha’s nurse said to Cinyras that there was a certain girl, who was inflamed with love for him and sought to have intercourse at night in the dark, on account of her virginal bashfulness. This Cinyras, excited by desire, promised. Then, wishing to see the girl’s face, he commanded a light to be brought in, and his daughter being discovered, he began to pursue her with a sword, in order to kill her. She, pregnant from her father, fled into the woods, and there she was changed into the tree of her name”, meaning myrrh. “But the child she had conceived, she retained even within her bark, and after it was split open by the tusk of a boar, she brought it forth into the light; which, being brought up by Nymphs, was named Adonis, whom, because Venus fell in love with him, Mars, transfigured into a boar, destroyed. Many say that, by the pity of Venus, he was changed into the rose.”¹¹ Thus summarily.

More evocatively in Aphthonius: “One who admires the rose for its beauty should think of the hurt of Venus. For the goddess was in love with Adonis, but Mars was in love with her, and the goddess was to Adonis what Mars was to Venus: god loved goddess, and goddess pursued man; the same passion, though their kind was different. Now, Mars was jealous and wished to kill Adonis, thinking his death would be the end of her love for Adonis. And Mars strikes Adonis! But when the goddess, having learned what had happened, hastened to defend him, and stepping on the rose in her haste, she was hurt by its thorns, and the sole of her foot was pierced. The blood flowing from the wound changed the color of the rose to its own likeness, and the rose which was white in the beginning became what is seen today.”¹² This whole narrative is quoted in the Geoponica, but with “blood” piously corrected to “ichor”, and the addition, “it gained redness and fragrance from then on.”¹³

Now, since we are surveying myths, we should add the metamorphosis of frankincense: “The Sun loved Leucothoë, born of Eurynome and Orchamus, ruler of Achaemenia, whose ancestry was from Belus, in preference to Clymene and to Rhodos, to the mother of Circe and to Clytië, at all of whose beauty he had previously roused his heart. And wishing, as with the aforementioned, to still his desire, he, changed into the appearance of the girl’s mother Eurynome, violated the virgin, deceived by his ruse. Incensed by her adultery, Clytië, with whom the Sun was no longer satisfied, revealed it to the girl’s father. When he buried her in the earth, her violator, showing pity for the deed, and having removed the soil which she lay under, he raised in her place a shoot drenched in nectar, which should be most dear to gods and humans, and is called frankincense. This Hesiod indicates. Clytië, the aforesaid Nymph, previously loved, but deserted by her lover for this injury, so wasted away in her organs that she was changed into a herb, which, preserving its previous love for the god, is called the heliotrope, and observes the course of the same god.”¹⁴ So we may also say that the flower heliotrope is sacred to the Sun.

The Geoponica record another myth of frankincense (líbanos), though somehow relating it to rosemary: “On rosemary (dendrolíbanon). Story. Líbanos is a Syrian name, both in the mountain (Mt Lebanon), and in the plant. But it was previously a youth dedicated to the gods. Angered at him, impious people killed him. But the Earth, honoring the gods, sent up a plant of the same name as the deceased, and while he changed his nature, he was not deprived of his love for the gods. Hence, one pleases the gods more by dedicating frankincense than by dedicating gold.”¹⁵

As for rosemary, “it is called libanotis by the Greeks; others icteritis, Italians rosmarinum, Punics zibbir. It grows in marine places and gardens. Before frankincense was known, people propitiated the gods with this herb.”¹⁶ Thus, the myth does fit both plants.

Summary
Saturn: lead — storax
Jupiter: tin (or electrum) — malabathrum
Mars: iron — costus
Sun: gold — frankincense — heliotrope
Venus: copper — Indian nard — rose
Mercury: quicksilver — cassia
Moon: silver — myrrh
All gods: frankincense, rosemary, salted meal (lat. mola salsa), etc.

Notes
For the sake of clarity and uniformity, I translate names of the gods in their Latinate, hence traditional English form. The fairly recent practice of strictly distinguishing between, e.g., Aphrodite and Venus, simply because one is translating from texts in different languages, builds up an ahistorical sense of intellectual separation.
(1) Proclus, On the Hieratic Art According to the Greeks, p. 149 (ed. Bidez): Οὕτω μεστὰ πάντα θεῶν, τὰ μὲν ἐν γῇ τῶν οὐρανίων, τὰ δὲ ἐν οὐρανῷ τῶν ὑπὲρ τὸν οὐρανόν.
(2) Olympiodorus, On Aristotle’s Meteorology, pp. 266–267 (ed. G. Stüve): ἰστέον δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, ὅτι ὁ θεῖος Πρόκλος ἐν τοῖς εἰς Τίμαιον ὑπομνήμασιν ἀνάγει τὰ μέταλλα εἰς τοὺς ἑπτὰ πλανωμένους λέγων ἀνακεῖσθαι τὸν μὲν μόλιβδον τῷ Κρόνῳ διὰ τὸ βαρὺ καὶ στυγνὸν καὶ ψυχρόν, τὸ δὲ ἤλεκτρον τῷ Διὶ διὰ τὸ εὔκρατον καὶ ζῳογόνον τοῦ ἀστέρος· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὸ μῖγμα· τὸ δὲ μῖγμα τιμιώτερόν ἐστι χρυσοῦ καὶ εὔκρατον. τῷ δὲ Ἄρει τὸν σίδηρον διὰ τὸ τμητικὸν καὶ ὀξύ· ἡλίῳ δὲ τὸν χρυσὸν ὡσανεὶ πηγῇ φωτὸς ὄντι· Ἀφροδίτῃ δὲ τὸν χαλκὸν διὰ τὸ ἀνθηρὸν καὶ ὅτι πλησίον ἐστὶ τοῦ ἡλίου, ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ χαλκὸς τοῦ χρυσοῦ· Ἑρμῇ δὲ τὸν κασσίτερον διὰ τὸ διαφανὲς καὶ στιλπνόν, ἅμα δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸ πλησίον εἶναι τῆς σελήνης, ὥσπερ ὁ κασσίτερος τοῦ ἀργύρου· τῇ δὲ σελήνῃ τὸν ἄργυρον, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος παρὰ χρυσῷ τιθέμενος δοκεῖ καταλάμπεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ χρυσοῦ καὶ φωτεινότερος γίνεσθαι, ὥσπερ ἡ σελήνη ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου καταλάμπεται.
(3) PGM XIII,15–20 (ed. K. Preisendanz): Ἑρμῆς κλέψας τὰ ἐπιθύματα ζʹ προσεφώνησεν ‹ἐν› ἑαυτοῦ ἱερᾷ βύβλῳ ἐπικαλουμένῃ ‘Πτέρυγι’ – τοῦ μὲν Κρόνου στύραξ (ἔστιν γὰρ βαρὺς καὶ εὐώδης), τοῦ δὲ Διὸς μαλάβαθρον, τοῦ δὲ Ἄρεως κόστος, τοῦ δὲ Ἡλίου λίβανον, τῆς δὲ Ἀφροδίτης νάρδος Ἰνδικός, τοῦ δὲ Ἑρμοῦ κασία, τῆς δὲ Σελήνης ζμύρνα. The same list but without the planetary assignments in PGM XIII,351–354: τὰ ζʹ ἐπιθύματα τὰ αὐθεντικά, ἐν οἷς ἥδεται ὁ θεός, τῶν ζʹ ἀστέρων τοῖς ζʹ ἐπιθύμασιν, ἅ ἐστιν ταῦτα· μαλάβαθρον, στύραξ, νάρδος, κόστος, κασία, λίβανος, ζμύρνα.
(4) Pliny, Natural History pr. 11: verum dis lacte rustici multaeque gentes et mola litant salsa qui non habent tura, nec ulli fuit vitio deos colere quoquo modo posset.
(5) To recapitulate, the Orphic Hymns assign θυμίαμα στύρακα for Saturn (OH 13) and Jupiter (OH 15; 19); θυμίαμα λίβανον for the Sun (OH 8), Jupiter (OH 20), Mercury (OH 28), Mars (OH 65); θυμίαμα ἀρώματα to the Moon (OH 9). By marine gods, I mean specifically Neptune (OH 17) and Nereus (OH 23). The hymn to Venus (OH 55) is one of a few where the original heading seems to have been lost in the course of manuscript transmission.
(6) Servius, On Vergil’s Aeneid 1.335 (ed. G. Thilo): Paphiae Veneri quae Cypri colitur, ture tantum sacrificatur et floribus. 
(7) PGM XIII,23–26 (ed. K. Preisendanz): καὶ – ταῦτα δὲ ὁ Μανεθὼς ἔλεγε ἐν ἰδίᾳ βίβλῳ – ἐντεῦθεν βαστάσας τὰ ζʹ ἄνθη τῶν ζʹ ἀστέρων, ἅ ἐστι σαμψούχινον, κρίνινον, λώτινον, ἑρεφύλλινον, ναρκίσσινον, λευκόϊνον, ῥόδον.
(8) PGM XIII,354–356 (ed. K. Preisendanz): καὶ τὰ ζʹ ἄνθη τῶν ζʹ ἀστέρων, ἅ ἐστιν ῥόδον, λώτινον, ναρκίσσινον, κρίνινον, ἑρεφύλλινον, λευκόϊνον, σαμψούχινον.
(9) Pseudo-Vergil (Ausonius ?), On Springing Roses (ed. W. V. Clausen): ambigeres raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem / an daret et flores tingeret orta dies. / ros unus, color unus, et unum mane duorum: / sideris et floris nam domina una Venus. / forsan et unus odor: sed celsior ille per auras / difflatur, spirat proximus iste magis. / communis Paphie dea sideris et dea floris / praecipit unius muricis esse habitum.
(10) I quote the text from Stuart Gillespie, “De Rosis Nascentibus from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century: A Collection of English Translations”, in: Translation and Literature 26.1 (2017), pp. 73–94, here p. 78, where however “savour” is mistranscribed as “favour”; I omit text critical marks.
(11) Servius auctus, On Vergil’s Bucolics 10.18 (ed. G. Thilo): et est de hoc fabula talis: in Cypro insula regnavit Cinyras, habens filiam Myrrham nomine. quae Solis ira in amores incidit patris, cum quo etiam ministerio nutricis concubuit: namque nutrix Myrrhae dixit Cinyrae, esse quandam puellam, quae eius amore flagraret et concubitum nocte in tenebris propter verecundiam expeteret virginalem. hoc Cinyras, incitatus libidine, pollicitus est. cupiens deinde videre vultus puellae, lumen iussit inferri visamque filiam persequi cum gladio coepit, ut interficeret. quae gravida de patre confugit in silvas ibique mutata est in arborem nominis sui. sed infantem conceptum etiam in cortice retinuit et postmodum dente apri excisum emisit in lucem. qui a nymphis eductus, Adonis cognominatus est. quem quia Venus adamavit, Mars in aprum transfiguratus occidit. quem multi miseratione Veneris in rosam conversum dicunt.
(12) Aphthonius, Progymnasmata, p. 3 (ed. H. Rabe, in: Rhetores Graeci, vol. 10): Ὁ τὸ ῥόδον θαυμάζων τοῦ κάλλους τὴν τῆς Ἀφροδίτης λογιζέσθω πληγήν. ἤρα μὲν γὰρ ἡ θεὸς τοῦ Ἀδώνιδος, ἀντήρα δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἄρης αὐτῆς, καὶ τοῦτο ἡ θεὸς ὑπῆρχεν Ἀδώνιδι, ὅπερ Ἀφροδίτῃ Ἄρης ἐτύγχανε. θεὸς ἤρα θεοῦ καὶ θεὸς ἐδίωκεν ἄνθρωπον· πόθος ὅμοιος, κἂν τὸ γένος διήλλαττε. ζηλοτυπῶν δὲ ὁ Ἄρης τὸν Ἄδωνιν ἀνελεῖν ἠβούλετο, λύσιν ἔρωτος τὸν Ἀδώνιδος ἡγησάμενος θάνατον. καὶ πλήττει μὲν Ἄρης τὸν Ἄδωνιν. μαθοῦσα δὲ τὸ ποιηθὲν ἡ θεὸς ἀμύνειν ἠπείγετο, καὶ κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐμβαλοῦσα τῷ ῥόδῳ ταῖς ἀκάνθαις προσέπταισε, καὶ τὸν μὲν ταρσὸν τοῦ ποδὸς περιπείρεται, τὸ δὲ καταρρεῦσαν αἷμα τοῦ τραύματος τὴν τοῦ ῥόδου χροιὰν εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ὄψιν μετέθηκε, καὶ τὸ ῥόδον τὴν ἀρχὴν λευκὸν γεγονὸς εἰς ὃ νῦν ὁρᾶται μετῆλθεν.
(13) Geoponica 11.17.3 (H. Beckh): καὶ λευκὸν τὸ ῥόδον πρότερον ὄν, τοῦ ἰχῶρος τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἀποῤῥυέντος, εἰς ὃ νῦν ὁρᾶται τὴν χρόαν μετέβαλε, καὶ ἔρευθος καὶ εὐωδία αὐτῷ ἔκτοτε προσεγένετο.
(14) Narrationes Fabularum Ovidianarum 4.5–6 (ed. H. Magnus): Sol praelatam Leucothoen ex Eurynome et Orchamo, Achaemeniae principe, origine Beli genitam, Clymenae ac Rhodo, Circae matri et Clytiae, quarum pulchritudine ante sollicitum animum egerat, dilexit. et cupiens, ut in antedictis, cupiditatem sedare, in speciem matris puellae Eurynomes conversus virginem deceptam dolo vitiavit. cuius adulterio Clytie incensa, qua nondum satiatus erat Sol, parenti puellae indicavit. quam ille cum terrae defodisset, vitiator admissi misericordiam exhibens, diducto solo, cui subiecta fuerat, pro ea virgam tinctam nectare, quae gratissima diis hominibusque esset, extulit, quae turea appellatur. hoc Hesiodus indicat. Clytie, nympha supradicta, ob iniuriam, ante dilecta, ab amatore deserta, ita tenuata visceribus est, ut in herbam converteretur, quae primum conservans amorem dei heliotropium diceretur cursumque servaret eiusdem dei. This account is based on Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.190–270, but the reference to Hesiod shows that it is not entirely dependent on the Latin poet.
(15) Geoponica 11.15 (ed. H. Beckh): Περὶ δενδρολιβάνου. Ἱστορία. Λίβανος Σύριον ὄνομα, καὶ ἐν ὄρει, καὶ ἐν φυτῷ. μειράκιον δὲ γέγονε πρότερον τοῖς θεοῖς ἀνακείμενον. ζηλοτυπήσαντες οὖν αὐτὸ κτείνουσιν ἄνθρωποι δυσσεβεῖς· Γῆ δὲ τιμῶσα θεοὺς φυτὸν ἀνῆκε τοῦ πεπτωκότος ὁμώνυμον, καὶ τὴν φύσιν μεταβαλών, τὸν πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς οὐκ ἀφῄρηται πόθον. ὅθεν μᾶλλον δή τις εὐφραίνει θεοὺς τὰ μέγιστα λίβανον ἐπιθείς, ἢ χρυσὸν ἀναθείς.
(16) Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius 80 (ed. E. Howald & H. Sigerist): herba rosmarinum a Graecis dicitur libanotis, alii icteritis, Itali rosmarinum, Punici zibbir. nascitur locis marinis et hortis; antequam tus sciretur, de hac herba homines deos placabant.

There are books we read once, and other books that bear rereading. Then there are books we “never cease to read”, as Virgil the Grammarian says.¹ We come to these as churchgoers come to Mass on Sundays, “to dedicate the sacred study of literature to sacred days.”² These are works like Kālidāsa’s Cloud Messenger, or like Vergil’s Aeneid, which Macrobius compares to a temple in urging, “let us not allow the inner sancta of this sacred poem to be concealed, but, having found the entrance to its hidden meanings, let us lay open the penetralia, to be celebrated in the worship of the learned.”³

Liu Yiming writes of the Journey to the West: “Wherever this book resides, there are heavenly deities standing guard over it. The reader should purify his hands and burn incense before reading it, and it should be read with the utmost reverence.”⁴ Zhang Zhupo, on The Plum in the Golden Vase: “The reader of the Chin P’ing Mei should burn fine incense on his desk in order to express his gratitude to the author for creating this literary masterpiece, in all its intricacy, for his enjoyment. The reader of the Chin P’ing Mei should keep fragrant tea on his table as an offering of thanks to the author for his pains.”⁵ This is good advice.

We also read that “Galileo prayed each time he sat down with The Almagest” of Ptolemy, perhaps reciting Psalm 145, which he had written out in his copy.⁶ I would rather place Plethon’s Prayer to the Rational Gods at the beginning of every manuscript: “Come, o rational gods, whoever and however many you are, who govern true knowledges and opinions, and bestow it on whom you wish, according to the designs of the great father and king of all, Zeus. For without you, we would be unable to complete so great a work. But guide these our reasonings, and grant that this work be entirely successful, a possession available for all times to those people who wish to live their lives in the best and noblest way, in pivate as well as in public.”⁷

Notes
(1) Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Epistola III de verbo, p. 50 (ed. Löfstedt): Sed nos sic dicimus, quod hic legat qui potest saltim litteras dicere; lectet autem qui quod legit intellegere incipit; legitet vero qui quod legit intellegere incipit; legitet vero qui quod legit intelligit ‹et› alios legere facit tradendo in artem scribendi quae legendi asuetudine didicerit; porro lectitet qui omnino legere non desinit.
(2) Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, Saturnalia 1.7.8 (ed. Kaster): Nam si per sacra sollemnia rivos deducere religio nulla prohibebit, si salubri  fluvio mersare oves fas et iura permittunt, cur non religionis honor putetur dicare sacris diebus sacrum studium litterarum?
(3) Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, Saturnalia 1.24.13 (ed. Kaster): non patiamur abstrusa esse adyta sacri poematis sed arcanorum sensuum investigato aditu doctorum cultu celebranda praebeamus reclusa penetralia.
(4) Liu Yiming (刘一明), The Original Intent of the Journey to the West (西遊原旨) 1, as translated by Anthony C. Yu, in David L. Rolston (ed.), How to Read the Chinese Novel, Princeton University Press 1990, p. 299.
(5) Zhang Zhupo (張竹坡), How to Read the Chin P’ing Mei [Jin Ping Mei] (第一奇書金瓶梅) 98–99, as translated by David T. Roy, in David L. Rolston (ed.), How to Read the Chinese Novel, Princeton University Press 1990, p. 241.
(6) “Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text”, in: Science (URL: https://www.science.org/content/article/galileo-s-handwritten-notes-found-ancient-astronomy-text), reporting on Ivan Malara’s ongoing research.
(7) Plethon, On the Laws 1.4 (ed. ):  Ἄγετε δὴ, ὦ θεοὶ λόγιοι, οἵτινές τε καὶ ὅσοι ἐστὲ, οἳ ἐπιστήμας τε καὶ δόξας ἀληθεῖς ἐπιτροπεύετε, νέμετέ τε οἷςπερ ἂν ἐθέλητε κατὰ τοῦ μεγάλου πατρὸς τῶν τε πάντων βασιλέως Διὸς βουλάς. Οὐ γάρ τοι ἄνευ ὑμῶν οἷοί τ’ ἂν ἡμεῖς εἴημεν ἔργον ἀνύσαι τηλικοῦτον. Ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς ἡμῖν τῶνδε τῶν λόγων ἡγήσασθέ τε, καὶ δότε τήνδε τὴν συγγραφὴν ὡς ἐπιτυχεστάτην γενέσθαι, κτῆμα ἀεὶ προκεισομένην τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοῖς ἐθέλουσιν ἂν καὶ ἰδίᾳ καὶ κοινῇ τὸν αὐτῶν βίον ὡς κάλλιστά τε καὶ ἄριστα καθισταμένοις ζῆν.