Oh, man - I said Hamilton was on the twenty. Jackson is on the twenty. Hamilton is on the ten. Lincoln's on the five. Mercury's on the American Express Card, unless you're in Canada, and then it's Tiger Woods.
I guess that's Mercury - he looks more Roman than Greek, so I'm not going with Hermes. And in fact the only justification I have for even assuming it's Hermes/Mercury is that he was god of commerce. I tried to get Google to back me up on this, but failed in spite of a nearly OCD level of effort. If anyone can confirm or deny the Mercuriosity of the portrait on the American Express Card, I'd be most grateful. Maybe then the twitching would stop.
I suspect he's not a god at all. AmEx has trademarked the vaguely obscene-sounding phrase "gladiator head," which I take to be a reference to the portrait on their card. (http://www.onlineproxy.com/amex/2003/ar/corporate.asp)
However, the same guy is on their travellers' checks, and there he's described as a Centurion. (http://home5.americanexpress.com/merchant/resources/tcgc/identify.asp)
The most logical explanation, then, would be that he's some sort of centurion-turned-gladiator, like Russell Crowe. Personally I think they would have been better off using your "god of commerce" concept, but that's marketing for ya.
Posted by: Rob on May 19, 2003 08:50 PMStwike him, Centuwion, vewy woughly!
http://www.stone-dead.asn.au/movies/life-of-brian/scene-13.html
Posted by: Mike on May 30, 2003 05:37 PM