Mercury and Argus is a oil painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. Mercury was a messenger and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. Argus, the neatherd, dozes off; Velasquez renders the theme of stealth and murder in modern dress, It was painted in 1659. Currently housed in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.