Statuette of Mercury

The god is depicted in young age with athletic body. He stands on his right leg, while the left is bent to the side. His head is slightly turned to his right. The left arm is covered by a draped cloak, which is fasterned on the shoulder with a round-headed pin. The left hand held an object which is not sufficiently preserved, perhaps a caduceus – a standard symbol of Hermes. In the right hand he held another object, which is only partially preserved and may have represented a purse, a symbol of commerce which appeared in Roman times. He wears sandals.

Hermes had various identities as psychopomp (a conductor of souls into the afterlife), messenger of the gods, protector of commerce etc., and was a very popular deity for public and household worship in Late Hellenistic and Early Roman times. The workmanship of the statuette is Romanm but the style suggests strong influences from Classical, mainly Polykleitan statue types (Polykleitos was a great Greek sculptor of the 5^th c. BC).

Unpublished