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Undergraduate
Classics Teaching Collections |
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| Name: |
Hermes
Propylaios |
| Picture: |
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| Description: |
By
Alkamenes of Athens. Roman copy from Pergamon, in the Istanbul Museum
of Antiquities. H. 1.19m. marble herm with archaistic head; tightly
curled hair which falls in waves over the shoulders. A long, square-cut
beard. Inscription (in Greek): You will recognise the very beautiful
statue of Hermes Propylaios by Alkamenes. Pergamios dedicated it. |
| Date: |
c. 430-420
B.C. |
| Discussion: |
Herms
stood on street-corners and outside houses (propylaios means 'outside
the gate') to ensure good luck and prosperity to the city and her
people; they were originally a manifestation of Hermes as a fertility
god, which is why the mutilation of the Hermae on the eve of the Sicilian
Expedition (415 B.C.) was considered an act of extreme sacrilege.
Alkamenes, according to the Suda, was a Lemnian; possibly he was raised
in the Athenian cleruchy on the island established around 450 B.C.
He seems to have been contemporary with, and was perhaps apprenticed
to, Pheidias. Alkamenes worked in chryselephantine, bronze, and marble,
tackling similar subjects to those of Pheidias. There are two versions
of the Hermes Propylaios, one from Pergamon and the other from Ephesos;
both claim to be copies of the original work but they differ markedly.
The Pergamene version is generally accepted as the authentic one (Willers
1967). See Stewart 1990: 267-8, 400 (ill.). |
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