Hermes / Mercury
Ancient Greek Mythology, Religion, Art
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Hermes was one of the few gods for whom no temples were dedicated. His cult statues were, instead, placed everywhere else for the use of travellers and merchants. Pausanias writes "Right at the very entrance to the Akropolis [of Athens] is a [statue of] Hermes called Hermes Propulaios (of the Gateway)." Hermes statues were much more common in the Arcadia region of Greeece.
A specific type of statue, known as Hermai, was simply a block of marble showing his head (bearded) and male genitalia at the base (Hermes was generally treated as a phallic god, evidently because of his association with fertility and luck). Some Herma also had a female head on one side.
Although scholars once thought that the god Hermes was named after this statue, that is no longer accepted. Worship of Hermes goes back at least as far as the Bronze Age and his existence is attested to in Linear B tablets from Crete, Thebes, and Pylos). Originally a herma was a square or rectangular stone used to mark boundaries. They were also used in front of houses to ward off evil (thus marking a spiritual boundary)
Pausanias writes that "The Athenians are far more devoted to religion than other men ... they were the first to set up limbless Hermai." All around Athens there were Hermai set up outside houses for good luck. Pausanias also wrote: "At the Arkadian gate [of Ithome, Messenia] leading to Megalopolis is a Herma of Attic style; for the square form of Herma is Athenian, and the rest adopted it thence."
According to historical reports, hermai all over Athens were defaced just before the fleet set sail in 415 BCE to besiege Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, perhaps to incite bad luck on the voyage. If that was the reason, it may have succeeded because the Athenians lost badly outside of Syracuse.
Festivals in honor of Hermes were called Hermoea and cults dedicated to him were especially popular in the Peloponnese. There was even an oracular ritual that occurred in front of a pillar of Hermes at Pharae, but the oldest cult of Hermes may have been at Athens where an ancient statue dedicated to him existed on the Acropolis. Athenians celebrated a young boys' festival called Hermaia.
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