Messenger

[ranger5]

What is the background to the saying "Don't shoot the messenger."? Does it have to do with the god Mercury from Greek Mythology?

[Clanad]

From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings :  "Don't shoot the messenger"; don't blame the person who brings bad news. This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in 'Henry IV, Part II' (1598) and in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-07) The word kill may be used as a substitute for 'shoot.'" Related saying: "Don't shoot the piano-player; he's doing the best he can" i.e., Don't hurt innocent people. Originated in the United States in the Wild West, around 1860. During his 1883 tour of the United States, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) saw this saying on a notice in a Leadville, Colorado, saloon. It is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, but neither Wilde nor Twain has ever claimed authority."

[Tatty Rollox]

......Hermes was a messenger (as well as his sister Iris) and he ended up looking like this after they shot him......

[Pootle]

Those animals, look what they did to his hair!

[Octavius]

Just a flesh wound.  The Black Knight always triumphs!