Herma
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2008-06-17T11:27:51Z
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[[Image:Herma Demosthenes Glyptothek Munich 292.jpg|thumb|right|160px|Herma of [[Demosthenes]] on the market place of [[Athens]], work by Polyeuktos, ca. 280 BC, [[Glyptothek]].]]
In ancient [[Greece]], before his role as protector of merchants and travelers, [[Hermes]] was a [[phallic symbol|phallic]] god, associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. His name comes from the word '''''herma''''' (plural ''hermai'') referring to a square or rectangular pillar of stone, [[terracotta]], or bronze; a bust of Hermes' head, usually with a [[beard]], sat on the top of the pillar, and male [[genitals]] adorned the base. The ''hermai'' were used as boundary markers on roads and borders. In [[Athens]], they were placed outside houses for good luck. [The male genitals would be rubbed or anointed with olive oil to obtain luck].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} This superstition persists, for example in the [[Porcellino]] bronze boar sculpture (and numerous others like it round the world), where the nose is shiny from being continually touched for good luck or fertility.
[[Image:AGMA Tête d'Hermès.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Archaic bearded [[Hermes]] from a herm, early 5th century BC.]]
[[Image:Philosopher2.JPG|thumb|200px|A hermaic sculpture of an old man. [[Ai Khanoum]], [[Afghanistan]], 2nd century BCE.]]
In [[415 BC]], on the night before the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for Syracuse during the [[Peloponnesian War]] (see [[Sicilian Expedition]]), all of the Athenian ''hermai'' were vandalized. This was a horribly impious act and many people believed it threatened the success of the expedition. Though it was never proven, the Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] or anti-war doves from [[Athens]] itself. In fact, [[Alcibiades]] was accused of being the originator of the crime. He denied the accusations and offered to stand trial, but the Athenians did not want to disrupt the expedition any further. His opponents were eager to have Alcibiades' trial in his absence when he could not defend himself. Once he had left on the expedition, his political enemies had him charged and sentenced to death ''[[in absentia]]'', both for the mutilation of the herms, and the supposedly related crime of profaning the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]].
===Art and popular culture===
In February of 2007, a group of [[University of Chicago]] students fashioned a set of life-size hermai out of ice and placed them around their campus in the middle of the night as a [[prank]].<ref>[http://neoherm.googlepages.com/ The Rise of the Hermai!]</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Commonscat|Hermai|Hermae}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek religion]]
[[cs:Herma]]
[[de:Herme]]
[[es:Herma]]
[[gl:Herma]]
[[he:הרמה]]
[[it:erma]]
[[ja:ヘルメー]]
[[nl:Herme]]
[[no:Herma]]
[[pl:Herma]]
[[pt:Herma]]
[[ru:Герма]]