Herm (sculpture)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Herma_Demosthenes_Glyptothek_Munich_292.jpg/200px-Herma_Demosthenes_Glyptothek_Munich_292.jpg)
Aherma(Ancient Greek:ἑρμῆς,pl.ἑρμαῖhermai),[1]commonlyhermin English, is a sculpture with a head and perhaps a torso above a plain, usually squared lower section, on whichmale genitalsmay also be carved at the appropriate height. Hermae were so called either because the head ofHermeswas most common or from their etymological connection with the Greek wordἕρματα(érma, meaning blocks of stone), which originally had no reference to Hermes at all.[2]The form originated inancient Greece,and was adopted by the Romans (called mercuriae), and revived at theRenaissancein the form ofterm figuresandatlantes.
Origin
[edit]In the earliest timesGreek divinitieswere worshipped in the form of a heap of stones or a shapeless column of stone or wood. In many parts of Greece there were piles of stones by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, and on theboundaries of lands.The religious respect paid to such heaps of stones, especially at the meeting of roads, is shown by the custom of each passer-by throwing a stone on to the heap or anointing it with oil.[3]Later there was the addition of a head andphallusto the column, which became quadrangular (the number four was sacred toHermes).[4]
Uses
[edit]![Herma with the head of Herakles (Hermherakles). Museum of Ancient Messene, Greece.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/HermHerakles_2.jpg/170px-HermHerakles_2.jpg)
In ancient Greece the statues were thought to ward off harm or evil, anapotropaicfunction, and were placed at crossings, country borders and boundaries as protection, in front of temples, near to tombs, outside houses, in thegymnasia,palaestrae,libraries,porticoes,and public places, at the corners of streets, on high roads as sign-posts, with distances inscribed upon them.[5]Before his role as protector of merchants and travelers,Hermeswas aphallic god,associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. His name perhaps comes from the wordherma,referring to a square or rectangular pillar of stone,terracotta,or bronze; a bust of Hermes' head, usually with abeard,[6]sat on the top of the pillar, and malegenitalsadorned the base. The surmounting heads were not, however, confined to those of Hermes; those of other gods and heroes, and even of distinguished mortals, were of frequent occurrence. In this case a compound was formed:[2]Hermathena(a herm of Athena),Hermares(of Ares),Hermherakles(of Herakles),Hermaphroditus(of Aphrodite—not to be confused with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite with the same name,Hermaphroditus,who had the genitals of both sexes),Hermanubis,Hermalcibiades,and so on. InAthens,where thehermaiwere most numerous and most venerated, they were placed outside houses as apotropes forgood luck.[7]They would be rubbed or anointed with olive oil and adorned with garlands orwreaths.[8]This superstition persists, for example thePorcellinobronze boar of Florence (and numerous others like it around the world), where the nose is shiny from being continually touched for good luck or fertility.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/AGMA_T%C3%AAte_d%27Herm%C3%A8s.jpg/200px-AGMA_T%C3%AAte_d%27Herm%C3%A8s.jpg)
In Roman andRenaissanceversions (termini), the body was often shown from the waist up. The form was also used for portrait busts of famous public figures, especially writers likeSocratesandPlato.Anonymous female figures were often used from theRenaissanceon, when herms were often attached to walls as decoration.
Trial of Alcibiades
[edit]In 415 BC, on a night shortly before the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for Syracuse as part of theSicilian Expeditionof thePeloponnesian War,all of the Athenianhermaiwere vandalized. Many people at the time thought such an impious act would threaten the success of the expedition.[9]
Though it was never proven, the Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either fromSyracuseorSpartansympathizers fromAthensitself; one suspect was the writerXenophon.[10]Enemies ofAlcibiades,using the anger of the Athenians as a pretext to investigate further desecrations, accused him of other acts of impiety, including mutilations of other sacred objects and mocking performances of religious mystery ceremonies.[11]He denied the accusations and offered to stand trial, but the Athenians did not want to disrupt the expedition any further, and his opponents wanted to use his absence to incite the people against him at a time when he would not be able to defend himself.
Once he had left on the expedition, his political enemies had him charged and sentenced to deathin absentia,both for the mutilation of the hermai, and the supposedly related crime of profaning theEleusinian Mysteries.
Art and popular culture
[edit]In Plato'sHipparchus,Socrates attributes the existence of these statues to Hipparchus. They were meant to educate the people in the country, outside of Athens, and make them admire Hipparchus' wisdom over the wisdom of the Delphic inscriptions. Hence he ordered the carvings of the following two inscriptions: "This is a memorial to Hipparchus: Walk thinking just thoughts" and "This is a memorial to Hipparchus: Don't deceive a friend" (229a–b). Socrates is making fun of Hipparchus, and his interlocutor, by this account.[12]
TheJ. Paul Getty Museumin Los Angeles has a large collection of Roman Herma boundary marker stones in its stored collection.
AnAesop's fablemakes fun of astatue of Hermes.When a pious dog offers to "anoint" it, the god hastily assures his worshipper that this is not necessary.[13]
In the fantasy novelLud-in-the-mistbyHope Mirrleesthe main character unearths an important object by digging beneath an object called both a "berm"and a" herm ". It is described as" the tree yet not a tree, the man yet not a man ".[14]
Gallery
[edit]-
Smallterracottaherm of Hermes
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Archaic Greek herm, presumably ofHermes,unusual in that the penis has survived
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Herm on an Attic red-figurelekythos,475–450 BC
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A hermaic sculpture of an old man, probably a philosopher.Ai Khanoum,Afghanistan, 2nd century BC
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Male and femaleBaroqueherms at theRubenshuis
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Medieval herm ofKing Saint Ladislaus of Hungarythat contains his skull; currently in the Basilica ofGyőr
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Dionysusherm fromEleutherna,Crete.
See also
[edit]- Boundary marker § Greece
- Crossroads (mythology)
- Cairn
- Inuksuk– Arctic North American landmark
- Caryatid– Greek-style column carved in a female human form
- Atlas (architecture)– Greek-style column carved in a male human form
- Lingam– devotional abstract image of Shiva
References
[edit]- ^Anatole Bailly,Abrégé du dictionnaire Grec-Français,Hachette, Paris, 1901,p. 361.
- ^abpublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Hermae".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 365. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^Nicand. Ther. 150; Theophrast. Char. 16.
- ^Paus. vii. 22. § 2; Aristoph. Plut. 1121, 1144; Hom. Od. xiv. 435, xix. 397; Athen. i. p. 16.
- ^Brunck, Anal. 3.197, no. 234
- ^The image of a youthful, beardless Hermes was a development of the 5th century BCE.
- ^Thuc. 6.27; Aelian, Ael. VH 2.41; Suid. s.v. Pollux, 8.72; Athen. 10.437b
- ^Theophrast. Char. 16; comp. Genesis 28.18, 22, 31.45-48
- ^Thuc. 6.27, with Grote's remarks, ch. 58, 5.146ff.; Andoc. de Myst.; Aristoph. Lys. 1094
- ^Introduction "A History of My Times" (Penguin Classics) Paperback – May 31, 1979 by the editor George Cawkwell. Translated from Xenophons' "Hellenica" by Rex Warner
- ^Thucydides (2008).The Landmark Thucydides.New York:Free Press,sections 6.27–28.
- ^Plato (1955).Hipparchus.Translated by Lamb, W. R. M. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 229a – via Perseus Digital Library.
- ^"Hermes and the Dog".Aesopica.
- ^Mirrlees, Hope (2013) [first published 1926].Lud-in-the-Mist.Gallery. p. 220.ISBN978-1-4405-4338-8.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Ancient Greek Art: Herm Statue, Theoi Project
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (1890), Perseus Project
- Herm (Greek religion)– Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- Influence of the Phallic Idea: Hermae, Termini, Pillars and "Groves"
- Ice HermsArchived2009-05-11 at theWayback Machine,with primary source passages on ancient herms and on the sacrilege trial of Alcibiades, images of ancient herms from sculpture andvase painting,and photos (including a step-by-step guide to the making) of the University of Chicago ice herms