Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Chapter Title: Herms: From Custodians of Boundaries to Custodians of Gardens

Chapter Author(s): Rocío Manuela Cuadra Rubio

Book Title: The Many Faces of Mimesis

Book Subtitle: Selected Essays from the 2017 Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of
Western Greece
Book Editor(s): Heather L. Reid and Jeremy C. DeLong
Published by: Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbj7g5b.26

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 Part VI
Mimēsis in Material Culture:
Architecture, Art, & Coinage

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 This content downloaded from
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 Rocío Manuela Cuadra Rubio1
Herms:
From Custodians of Boundaries to Custodians of Gardens

In this work, I would like to present a study on the introduction,

development, and meaning of herms in Roman culture. As is well-
known, cultural influences arrived in Rome from territorial gains in
Eastern areas, and were absorbed in different social environments. In
private life, there was a phenomenon of assimilation of new
decorative forms that filled Roman houses with images and new
allegories. A particularly notable decorative form was the herm. The
origin of the herm is found in Greek civilization, and it was precisely
in this environment that models were created, and later developed,
in the Roman world—which continued to exist, almost unchanged
over the centuries, until the fall of the Empire.2
In this study, I particularly focus on the smaller herms that
decorate different marble furnishings in various spaces in the Roman
house; especially those herms which serve not only as a decorative,
but also symbolic, element of Roman people’s private sphere. The
work is divided into several sections, with the first addressing the
types of herms found in the Vesuvian area, as well as other areas in
the Empire where the presence of herms is conspicuous. Secondly, I
will focus on the features and uses of the types of furnishings on
which small herms are arranged. Lastly, I would like to propose a
complete reading of the small-size herm interpretations, according to
the space of the Roman house in which these furnishings were
placed, in order to understand possible messages, trends, and
typological transformations over time.
The earliest data on the use of herms as a sculptural type can be
documented in the archaic period, from both literary and
archaeological sources. The development of the sculptural type has
not yet been confirmed, but it may be an evolution of the so-called
"idols"—hypothetically human-stylized forms already existing in the
Mediterranean from the Neolithic period.3 Over the centuries, there
are a number of "transition" monuments, such as milestones, in
which the traces of an emerging anthropomorphism of the head are
evident. These are probably the link between the primitive model
and the new (Fig. 1).
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 Figure 1. Idol of Senorbi Turriga (Sardegna), left.
Idol of the Archaeological Museum of Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), right.

Alkamenes
The author to whom the archaic barbarian herms are attributed
in Athens is the sculptor Alkamenes, student of Phidias. It is known
that when commissioned to place a statue at the entrance of the
Acropolis, he created a herm, with a head of the god Hermes in his
mature age, with a beard and genitals.4 As an artist working in
Athens in the last decades of the 5th century BCE—when a revival of
the worship of Hermes in Athens was documented—his works are
characterized by archaic style, in contrast with the dominant phidian
aesthetics.
The particularity of Alkamenes’s sculptural works resulted in a
resumption and repurposing of archaic sculptural models—with
slight modifications—at a time when classicism was already
prominent: a gravity ("pondus") and divine majesty was conferred to
the faces of these sober, serious herms characterized by defined lines.
The traditional archaic frontality derived from the function of the
herm as a terminus; but it also resembled the characteristic frontality
of other sculptural, subjects such as the korai. The overall geometric
configuration of the complex face includes perfect symmetry
between the curls of the beard and those of the hair, which form
large spirals. While his style represents a general return to archaism,

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 Fig .2: The two types of herms attributed to Alkamenes, from Gagliano, 2014 .
this new rendering of hair, locks, and beard was Alkamenes’s novel
contribution.
Two "types" derived from the original Athenian archetype are
particularly well-known. These are the "Pergamon" type and the
"Ephesus" type, each developed a few years later in these two cities.
Both represented a mature man with a thick beard above a pillar,
bearing the same inscription that attributes them to the Athenian
sculptor (Fig. 2).5 Replicas of these types have been found in every
part of the Mediterranean—either exact copies or with slight
modifications—with varying dimensions (though most of them are
without an inscription).6
It is very likely that the herms of Alkamenes were inspired by
rural Dionysian herms—protectors of the flocks, of the boundaries of
the fields, of the crossroads and of vineyards. These herms have
particular characteristics that distinguish them, such as: the presence
of perfectly draped apparel; representation of the god as mature and
with a beard; a Dionysian mask adorned with ivy leaves (either on
top of the herm or leaning on it); or several fruits hanging behind it
(a symbol of the fertility of the fields). There are numerous exampes
of such Dionysian herms on Attic vases (Fig. 3).

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 Fig. 3. Red-fgtured Kylix, Makron painter, Berlin Antikensammlun g F2290.

Hermes
Another question arises around the choice of how to depict the
divinity that gives his name to this sculptural type: Hermes. This
may have been due to a series of contemporaneous circumstances at
the time when Alakamenes operated in Athens. The worship of
Hermes is documented from the Bronze Age in Mycenaean tablets.
This God, Maia's son, has many epithets reflecting his various
functions and ancient origins. He was related to the afterlife, being
the conductor of souls after death; hence, the epithet "Psychopompos."
Most likely for this reason, monuments or paintings with his image
were placed above or near the tombs of Athenians—a common
procedure at Solon’s time.7
Hermes was also considered the protector of crossroads. The
origin of the use of the sculptural type "hermae" can be dated back to
the 6th century BCE, the century to which the first Greek vases are
dated and documented. Originally made of wood, the herms with
their effigies were placed at the boundaries of territories and at
crossroads to indicate the distance between two points. Placed in
front of the doors of the houses, they acted as doorway protectors.
The figure of Hermes was also used for educational purposes, as
Plato says in Hipparchus:8
And when his people in the city had been educated and
were admiring himfor his wisdom, he proceeded next, with
the design of educating those of the countryside, to set up

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 figures of Hermes for them along the roads in the midst of
the city and every district town. (228cd)
Hipparchus had his maxims carved on the pillars of the herms, being
aware of the great number of herms placed in the territory, and of the
persistence of the material they were made of, marble. We know that
at the end of the 5th century BCE, a general revitalization of the cult of
Hermes in Athens is documented. This fact matches with the date of
the creation of the herm of Hermes made by Alkamenes.
The large number of sculptures depicting Hermes helps us to
understand the importance that this god had for the city of Athens,
and the Athenians themselves. Hermes, linked to the city of Athens
since its very beginnings, symbolized the naval power of the
Athenians after their victory against the Persians (remember that
Hermes was the patron of sailors). Consequently, herms were erected
in commemoration of this victory, becoming a symbol of the political
expansion of Athens in the Mediterranean, the birth of the Athenian
empire, as well as a symbol of Athenian democracy itself.9 Thus, his
image glorified the days in which the Athenians imposed themselves
on the rest of the Greeks.
This type of sculpture is not only documented in Athens or
Greece. We have previously highlighted the herms of Pergamum and
Ephesus, but herms are documented throughout the Mediterranean,
in different forms, and of many materials. The popularity of the herm
in Hellenistic and Roman times can be attributed, among other
explanations, to the taste for veneration of ancient traditions, and for
collecting art, as Pliny the Elder attests.10 The success and
continuation of these forms can be found in the understanding of the
form as a predominant work of art in "antiquity." The mature age of
the god gives a refined importance to the representation. In fact, in
the Classical age, Hermes undergoes a change in representation;
from young and shaved, to a mature man with thick beard.
Roman mimēsis
In terms of mimēsis, we can say that one of the nearby cultures
that best absorbed and re-designed Greek herm-archetypes was that
of the Roman people. The "Greek" way of living was embraced by the
wealthy social classes, transforming the rough habits of Roman
people into refined customs, with special attention given to art and
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pleasure. With the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE, and the
subsequent transformation of Greece into a Roman province (27
BCE), a real raid began, as well as a trade in all kinds of works of art,
as well as Greek artisans. The works of art, arriving in different cities,
were placed in public areas, such as libraries, spas, gymnasia
(remember the Attalo gym in Ephesus), squares, nymphaea, etc. It is
not by chance that the herms find easy access to Roman residences.
In the early years of the Empire, an eclectic artistic trend was in
vogue, which fostered the introduction of this archaic sculptural style
in private and public spaces of the dwellings. The artists set up copy
workshops or, as itinerant workers, brought the patterns and skills
for marble processing with them from town to town.
In the study of domestic sculpture of the Roman era, one area of
focused research is on the subjects represented, that is to say,
iconography.11 Numerous studies have dealt with the statues of the
Roman house, with volumes and rich collections focused on their
artistic and stylistic aspects, rather than the functional and
communicative ones.12 Despite the great work achieved, doubts arise
about the description, and the intrinsic message, of some of the
characters represented in these artefacts (Fig. 4).
In the domestic sculptural cycles of the Roman domus, special
attention should be paid to small size herms. It is worth pointing out
the high number of herms documented in the southern areas of the
Italic Peninsula and in
Hispania, as well as the fact
that a large group of this
sculptural typology rep-
resents mature and bearded
characters (Fig. 5).13
In the Roman field,
double herms were born,
derived from the original
archetype. These herms
acquired new meaning. No
longer conceived only to lie
against a wall, they now
were to be inserted into
Fig. 4 Peristilio della casa dei Vettii. Pompei.
open spaces, and observed Wikimedia Commons.
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from multiple angles, giving them
duplicate apotropaic character. Also,
two characters could now be
combined. In any case, the Roman
domus did not intend to replicate
exactly the sculptural models of
Greek houses, gardens, or squares;
rather, they went beyond the material
aspect, in the words of Elaine K.
Gazda, “…to suggest spiritual close-
ness to the Greek past to evoke the
spirit of the classic ideal.”14
Domestic use of herms
Within the space of the Roman
domus, we find a series of
personifications in the form of herms,
in various sizes. The diversification of
these is due to the multiplicity of uses
for which they were created. Below I
present the analysis, after a study in Figure 5. Small herm used as
the Vesuvian area, on the domestic decoration on a table leg.
use of herms:
a) Use of herms in a religious context.
Small-format herms are documented in Herculaneum. They
have a small marble pedestal, from which a pillar extends, and above
it the head of a divinity. What I could document was a bronze head
representing Hercules (Insula III).15 Other examples related to the
domestic religious field were found during the excavations of
Herculaneum, in niches excavated in the walls of some rooms
(75487—Herculaneum Inventory: 211, unpublished).16 Additonal
niches, however, are located along the streets—such as that of
Abundance Road, where there is still a small Dionysus herm with
leaves and corymbs.
b) Use of herms in the representative -commemorative field:
Few are the representations in which herms are used in public
places for commemorative purposes. One of the examples where this

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use is conspicuous and clear is that of the relief on the Arch of
Constantine (312-315 CE), which confirms the use of this sculptural
type in the late-Roman Empire. Another example of a herm with
representative aims, this time in the domestic environment, is
documented in the Vesuvian area. Here, the pillar is positioned at the
entrance of the dominus tablinum, along with the busts of the
ancestors. As further examples we can mention those of the House of
the Bronze Herm in Herculaneum, or the house of Cornelius Rufus in
Pompeii. Examples of such commemorative domestic use have also
been documented in Spain, such as in Ecija.
c) Use of the herms for a decorative purpose
Many are the examples of small size herms used to decorate
table supports, the so-called trapezophoros. The Vesuvian area is one
of the best examples that confirms the extensive use in everyday life
of this type of sculpture. In peristyles, however, it decorates the
private garden, and with the addition of double hermae, the herm
itself oversees every corner of the house, as well as every visitor. The
possibility is not to be excluded that the herms in the Roman domus
had a protective function.
d) Use of the herms for protective or apotropaic aims
At this point, it is useful to remember that Hermes was the
patron saint of travelers, and in the Roman house, there were pre-
established transit paths for anyone dwelling or entering inside. The
fact that Romans only used herms as a simple decoration is not
coherent with what had such vital importance for the people: that is
to say, the veneration of ancestors, illustrious characters, and archaic
deities—and Hermes was one of them
e) Use of herms in the funerary sphere. Herms of different types were
painted near, or inside of, the tombs themselves. We shold recall that
one of many epithets of Hermes, the one attributed to him as the
messenger and the conductor of souls in the afterlife, is
Psychopompos.17 For this reason, relating the figure of the god to the
final dwelling place had to be a common practice.
Conclusions
There seems to be no doubt that the use of small herms in the
Roman domestic environment, as well as in the public domain, is an

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artistic derivation or mimēsis of archaic Greek herms. With the Greek
archetype, they share: frontality, compositional features (the half
bust); and the composition of hair and beard (at least when they do
not represent young people or characters of another type).
After identifying the spaces and environments where the herms
could be used, our analysis of these sculptures focused on the
representation of the divinity. A large proportion of the small herms
documented in the Vesuvian area are identified with Dionysus.
However, in most of these herms, no attributes commonly related to
this divinity—such as leaves, or corymbs in the hair locks—are
present. For this reason, our reflection suggests that Hermes could
have formed—together with Dionysus and the characters of the god's
entourage—decoration for the apotropaic and propitiatory functions
of the Roman house. This hypothesis finds confirmation in a series of
small herms, in which it is possible to recognize miniature copies of
the Athenian archetype created by Alkamenes (Fig. 6)
To conclude, I believe that it is useful to point out where the
study of sculptural works could be directed, to help us understand
not only the beauty of an artefact, but also its meaning. First of all, it
would be useful to use literary sources to understand the social
repercussions that this sculptural form had in ancient societies. An
accurate analysis of the contexts in which they were documented
should be carried out, with the aim of establishing possible habits of
use. The part of this work that I hold to be essential would be to
establish the evolution of the herm, from its origin to the Roman

Figure 6. Small herms from Pompeii. Da Carrella, 2008.

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period. Starting from this chronological study, we could create a
catalogue and nomenclature for small format herms. An up-to-date
study of the iconography of small size herms would allow a better
identification of the depicted characters. In this iconographic
analysis, special attention should be given to the exceptions—the less
frequent depictions—to understand the motivations of their nature
(e.g. marine or Egyptian themes). I believe that a study on regiones
would be of great help, in order to establish commonalities across a
wide territorial scale. For this reason, it would be useful to carry out
a thorough study of Hispanic herms, a group for which many gaps of
study still exist today. Lastly, the creation of an online catalogue, for
sharing data within the scientific community, could end the
investigation of the findings known so far, and open the door for
new findings.18

1 Dr. Manuela Cuadra is a historian and archaeologist with the University of

Barcelona. After an initial focus on the architectonic decoration of Ostia
Antica, she has specialized in the study of marble furniture in Roman
culture, concentrating not only on analysis of the material, but also the
significance of the iconography. rociocuadrarubio@hotmail.com
2 Some small huts can be found in the setting of ancient late-Roman villas of

Betica. Cfr. Desiderio Vaquerizo "La decoración escultórica de la villa

romana de "El Ruedo" (Almedinilla, Córdoba)", AAC 1 (1990); 125-154.
3 Ernst Homann Wedeking, The Art of Archaic Greece (Crown: 1968).

4 Loredana Calzavara Capius, Alkamenes. Fonti storiche e archeologiche

(Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1968).

5 Elena Gagliano, “Hermes Propylaios (e le Charites) sull’Acropoli di

Atene”, ASAA XCII, serie III (2014): 33 - 67.

6 Ignacio Arce, “A replica of the Hermes Propylaiosby Alkamenes found at

Qsar Al-Hallabat,” ADAJ 53, (2009): 265 - 274.

7 Cicerone, De Legibus, 2.64-5.

8 Plato, “Hipparchus,” The Plato Collection, trans. by B. Jowett (Catholic Way

Publishing. 2015).
9 Aeschines, Contro Ctesiphonte, 3.183-8.

10 Giorgio Gualandi, “Plinio il Vecchio sotto il profilo storico e letterario” atti

della Tavola rotonda nella ricorrenza centenaria della morte di Plinio il

Vecchio, Bologna, 16 dicembre 1979. 259-298.

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11 José Miguel Noguera Celdran, Elena Conde Guerri, (eds.), Escultura
romana en Hispania. Vol. I – VIII (Cordoba: 2016); Elise Friendland et al.
(eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture (Oxford University Press:
2015); Janet Burnett Grossman, Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture (Los
Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003).
12 Anna Carrella, Marmora Pompeiana nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di

Napoli (Roma: L’Erma di Breschtneider 2008).

13 A study up to that date, made at a general level, was a made by: Marc

Mayer, “Las hermae decorativas de pequeñas dimensiones. Una nueva

aproximación a los ejemplares hispánicos,” Imago antiquitatis. Religions et
iconographie du monde romain, eds. N. Blanc, A. Buisson, Mélanges offerts
à Robert Turcan (París: 1999), 353-363.
14 Elaine K. Gazda, Roman Art in the Private Sphere, The Ancient Art of

Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to

Classical Antiquity (Michigan: University of Michigan Press: 2002).
15 Unpublished Herm.

16 Amedeo Maiuri, Diari degli Scavi.

17 Ifijenija Radulovic, “Hermes the transformer,” Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em

Debate 17 (2015).
18 In May 2017 in Badalona, near Barcelona, a small Roman house was found

in a tiny, old-style hermitage; still unpublished.

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