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Almost complete statue of a youthful herm, or Priapus, or Herakles, or possibly simply a portrait statue done as a Herm, frontal view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Almost complete statue of a youthful herm, or Priapus, or Herakles, or possibly simply a portrait statue done as a Herm, right profile view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Herm
- Date
- Hellenistic
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 3789
- Museum Inventory No.
- 3789
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- S64.013
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture
- Sculpture Type
- Herm
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- MTW
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W20 / S172.3 - S172 *106.7
- Findspot
- MTW
- Description
Youthful head of herm looks slightly r., with slight smile. Hair is in tight curls all over head and straight across forehead. Incised eyes are slanting. Chin small but firm, neck very short. Cloak, drawn around shoulders in horizontal folds, completely covers l. arm and hand. R. hand, exposed, grasps vertical fold of cloak. Genitals are on pillar, which flares at the bottom. The front surface of the statuette is very smooth, the back done with rough claw hammer. Not much drilling; the work is mostly superficial.
Probably a portrait of a Hellenistic ruler as a herm, or else as an early Roman copy of one. Perhaps shown as Herakles.
- Condition
Large-grained gray marble, possibly local.
Lower part of herm support broken. One side incrusted with reddish earth.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.65; W. 0.20; plinth: 0.23 by 0.125 by 0.08.
- Comments
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Published: Hanfmann-Detweiler, Oldest Sardis, 23, fig. 6. For similar portrait, of Hellenistic ruler (Ptolemy IV), see Bonacasa, Tolomeo IV, 370. fig. 6; for Hellenistic Herakles herms on reliefs, Pfuhl, Beiwerk, 78ff., esp. 83-84; for Herakles herms see Wrede, Hermengalerie, 82, 138f., pls. 43, 69:4; see also Roux, Kolossos, 32.
- Author
- NHR