My first ancient Herm/Herma: talk about an unrealistic body ideal *artistic nudity

[Ryro]

An ancient Herma, or Herm, was a sculptor of a head usually on a long blank pillar as the body, but with a penis and scrotum in the area it would be on a regular body. These were a religious symbol and supposedly helped keep the city safe. Just like their most infamous protruding part, Herma came in all kinds of shapes and sizes, big and small. Christians through the ages have, sadly, taken pride in breaking off the appendages so that future generations wouldn't be insulted by such vulgarity (I can think of a few people on the old site that I can see doing this... and maybe a couple on here a well😶).

And though named after Hermes, due to him being the most popular head on these:

not all Herms were of Hermes! Many also have Herakles:

 

To real people like the Great orator Demosthenes!

and even Janiform Herms:

My question is, why don't Herms on ancient coins have their phalluses? Back then it was very bad luck and an insult to the gods to deform a Herma. Could it be an allusion to the time Alcibiades and friends supposedly went around Athens knocking off all the Herms phalluses (making Alcibiades the world's first cock-knocker) and on the eve of the journey to Syracuse!?

All this brings us to my latest non coin acquisition. Drum roll please. My Herma. Featuring none other than the god of the hour himself, Hermes:

19.32 Gr. 54mm

And now Herma on coins and stranger things still:

Here's a Herm control mark in front of the slinger!

Pamphylia. Aspendos

circa 420-370 BC.

Stater AR, 24 mm, 10,8 g

Two wrestlers grappling / EΣTFEΔ[IIVΣ], slinger in throwing stance right, triskeles to left; herm in right field, all within pelleted square border. Good very fine, SNG Copenhagen -; SNG France 3; SNG von Aulock 4511. Die match with Savoca Silver 133 lot 101. Purchased from Biga Numismatics July 2022

 

And for fun, a Herm is the countermark on my MSC!

Philip V.

221-179 BC. Æ (12mm, 2.10 g, 7h). Pella or Amphipolis mint. Struck circa 211-201 BC. Macedonian shield, boss decorated with head of the hero Perseus right, wearing Phyrgian cap, Countermark of Herm to right/ Macedonian helmet facing. Mamroth, Bronzemünzen 9; Touratsoglou, Macedonia 7; HGC 3, 1087. Rare and maybe singular example with C/M type.  Purchased March 2022 from Savoca Auctions

 

Here's something you don't see everyday. I purchased this from Savoca shortly before the Peter Higgs scandal rocked an uncaring BM. I've emailed the BM three different times about this and gotten only responses that they forwarded to another area. So if it was sold through Savoca via Higgs or a intermediary, I don't feel bad owning it.

This seal has the name Alcibiades on it and a Herma. Making it seem like a reference to the most famous Greek, not named Alexander, and Athens ill-fated voyage to Syracuse:

Series from the British Museum (ca. 1860-1880 AD). Seal:

Cat tailed Phallus (with legs/wings?), snail and cricket left and above, Herma right, monogram above, Greek writing right ΑΛΚΙΒΙΑΔΗΣ – Alcibiades. All in retrograde. 19 mm, 2,46 g, very fine. Purchased from Savoca July 2023

Thanks for reading along with me. I hope you learned something new, or at least had fun. Please share anything Herm related, ancient greek sculptor, phallic, thoughts or whatever keeps your ithy phallic 😉

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Ryro

[Curtisimo]

Great coins Ryan.  One of these days I’m going to mark my property lines with Herms.

[Ryro]

1 minute ago, Curtisimo said:

Great coins Ryan.  One of these days I’m going to mark my property lines with Herms.

Thanks, my guy! And great call out.

It's pretty wild to think that these amazing, sometimes masterpieces, of ancient art evolved from piles of rocks. As Curtis says, Greeks would put piles of rocks down to mark those property lines. They then started putting votive offerings to the gods in these piles. They would get larger, more artistic and elaborate (you can count on the ancient Greeks to make a competition out of something as simple as pilling rocks!) and this would turn into the Herma,  dedications to the gods!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I really like the Aspendos stater; much better than mine.  I've found coins from Biga to be satisfying, though they take forever and a day to ship.

 

[Phil Anthos]

Walter Burkert writes about very early 'plank gods', simple wooden planks erected in special areas, particularly crossroads, where people could leave offerings. Over time they became more  anthropomorphic, at first a simple head and shoulders shaped in but eventually more human-like. The ultimate evolution of this idea may be the statue of Artemis at Ephesus, the so-called "many breasted Goddess". Upon closer inspection we can see that each row of breasts are shaped differently, perhaps rows of bull testicles, nuts and bladders filled with honey, etc. Typical fertility offerings. And these are thought to have originally been offerings such as those draped over these earlier plank gods.

Centuries pass and these planks become fully realized human forms including the naughty bits, although not all herms are ithyphallic, and they also become associated with Hermes (and less often Hekate). Both of these Gods are known as Enodia ('of the crossroads'). 

Below is an example from Taras (not my coin).

~ Peter 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Phil Anthos
Dumbassedness

[Al Kowsky]

Ryro, Interesting thread, coins & artifacts ☺️. There is another interesting figure in Roman mythology related to Herms, Priapus. He is depicted in many different forms, some that are quite amusing like the one pictured below.

      Gallo-Roman, Priapus, 1st Cen. AD. AE 18 cm tall. Picardie Museum, Amiens, France.

 

[Ryro]

13 minutes ago, Phil Anthos said:

Walter Burkert writes about very early 'plank gods', simple wooden planks erected in special areas, particularly crossroads, where people could leave offerings. Over time they became more  anthropomorphic, at first a simple head and shoulders shaped in but eventually more human-like. The ultimate evolution of this idea may be the statue of Artemis at Ephesus, the so-called "many breasted Goddess". Upon closer inspection we can see that each row of breasts are shaped differently, perhaps rows of bull testicles, nuts and bladders filled with honey, etc. Typical fertility offerings. And these are thought to have originally been offerings such as those draped over these earlier plank gods.

Centuries pass and these planks become fully realized human forms including the naughty bits, although not all herms are ithyphallic, and they also become associated with Hermes (and less often Hekate). Both of these Gods are known as Enodia ('of the crossroads'). 

Below is an example from Taras (not my coin).

~ Peter 

Do you believe they are supposed to represent breasts? Is what makes the most obvious sense to me, but I always get push back on boards when I refer to them as such. Are the different "breasts" symbolic for different offerings from the goddess?:

Aurelian
Pisidia. Kremna AD 270-275.
Bronze Æ 32mm., 14,18g. Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / Facing statue of Artemis Ephesia, with supports. nearly very fine Cf. Von Aulock, Pisidien II 1621-3.
Ex Savoca London

@Al Kowsky That. Is. Epic. 

Priapus? Hard-ly know him:

[ambr0zie]

All I can do is a Thasos drachm with an ithyphallic satyr carrying a nymph. I suspect you like this type. 

[AETHER]

im at work, I needed a "NSFW" before I clicked

[Ryro]

Just now, AETHER said:

im at work, I needed a "NSFW" before I clicked

Lol! "*artistic nudity" aint enough for ya?

[Phil Anthos]

11 minutes ago, Ryro said:

Do you believe they are supposed to represent breasts? Is what makes the most obvious sense to me, but I always get push back on boards when I refer to them as such. Are the different "breasts" symbolic for different offerings from the goddess?:

Aurelian
Pisidia. Kremna AD 270-275.
Bronze Æ 32mm., 14,18g. Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / Facing statue of Artemis Ephesia, with supports. nearly very fine Cf. Von Aulock, Pisidien II 1621-3.
Ex Savoca London

@Al Kowsky That. Is. Epic. 

Priapus? Hard-ly know him:

Burkert also talks a bout the Assyrian God Telepinus and how offerings were made to Him by hanging fruits, nuts, bladders filled with honey and grain, and possibly bull semen. All of this was hung from a tall pole errcted for the purpose and then danced around, possibly a precursor to the Celtic fertility rite involving the maypole.

But all these fertility offerings seem to be given to the God in question, not necessarily representative of gifts received. 

The Artemis statues seem to fall into two categories, those with similar orbs probably meant to be breasts and earlier ones with variously shaped orbs.

~ Peter 

[Ryro]

8 minutes ago, Phil Anthos said:

Burkert also talks a bout the Assyrian God Telepinus and how offerings were made to Him by hanging fruits, nuts, bladders filled with honey and grain, and possibly bull semen. All of this was hung from a tall pole errcted for the purpose and then danced around, possibly a precursor to the Celtic fertility rite involving the maypole.

But all these fertility offerings seem to be given to the God in question, not necessarily representative of gifts received. 

The Artemis statues seem to fall into two categories, those with similar orbs probably meant to be breasts and earlier ones with variously shaped orbs.

~ Peter 

Very interesting! Thanks for the enlightenment. 

Ps, I don't think the Taras example you meant to include loaded. I don't see any coin in your first post. 

Pss, you've made me realize what certainly was the worst job of the ancient world: bull seman retriever!

[Phil Anthos]

1 hour ago, Ryro said:

Very interesting! Thanks for the enlightenment. 

Ps, I don't think the Taras example you meant to include loaded. I don't see any coin in your first post. 

Pss, you've made me realize what certainly was the worst job of the ancient world: bull seman retriever!

Problem corrected, thank you.

And I was thinking that same thought as I wrote. Now I'll try to never think of it again.

~ Peter (tentatively)

[NewStyleKing]

Athens New Style Tetradrachm c151/0 BC

Obs : Athena Parthenos right in tri-form helmet
32 3 mm 17.20 g Thompson Issue 14
Thompson catalogue: Obs 87 : Rev NEW
Rev : AΘE ethnic
Owl Standing on overturned panathenaic amphora
on which month mark M/B
2 magistrates monograms in both fields
LF symbol : Term of Hermes
All within a surrounding olive wreath

 

I don't know what he's supposed to be holding? No, really  I don't!

Edited December 16, 2023 by NewStyleKing

[AncientOne]

Here are my ancient Pez dispensers.

Thrace, Sestos. AE14. 3rd c. BC.

Obv: Head of Demeter left / ΣHΣ.
Rev: Herm facing between palm branch and delta in left field.

 

Caria, Herakleia Salbace. Hadrian Æ19. Herm

Obv: СΕΒΑСΤΟС / Laureate head of Hadrian, r.
Rev: ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΩΝ / Herm facing.
3.762g, 19.2mm.

 

Lesbos, Mytilene. AE20, ca AD 250-268

Mytilene, Lesbos. AE20, ca AD 250-268, time of Valerian to Gallienus. 2.4gm. Head of Zeus Ammon right with horn of Ammon / MUTILH-NAIWN, bearded herm of Dionysos facing, on prow, bunch of grapes at lower left.
BMC 184. RPC X, — (unassigned; ID 61440)

[Roman Collector]

I don't have any coins with herms on them. Here's a nude dude, though.

Gordian III, AD 238-244.
Roman provincial Æ Pentassarion, 13.30 g, 27.1 mm, 7 h.
Thrace, Anchialus, AD 238-244.
Obv: ΑVΤ Κ Μ ΑΝΤ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC ΑVΓ, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: ΟVΛΠΙΑΝWΝ ΑΓΧΙΑΛΕWΝ, Nude athlete standing facing, head right, holding palm branch and wreath.
Refs: AMNG II, 632.3, p. 276; Mionnet Suppl. 2, 136; RPC VII.2, 1115; Corpus Nummorum cn Type 4915 (this coin).

Edited December 16, 2023 by Roman Collector