HERMAE, properly the plural of the name Hermes (q.v.). The adoration of baetyli (q.v.) was and continued to be a fairly common feature of Greek cult, particularly in the more backward districts, such as Laconia, where, for instance, a meteoric stone received worship as Zeus Kappotas (Zeus the Descender, i.e., Thunderbolt; see Pausanias, III., 22, I.). Not dissimilar objects were the posts, pillars or heaps of rough stones set up along roads or to mark boundaries. These, like the Latin Terminus (q.v.), were sacred things, and connected with the cult of Hermes; indeed, some go so far as to derive his name from Ep sa (stone, rock, piece of ballast ; so Preller, and, more recently, Nilsson and Miss J. E. Harrison). With the development of artistic taste and the conception of the gods as having human form (anthropomor phism), these somewhat unsightly objects tended to be replaced, often by statues, frequently also by pillars, generally square and tapering towards the bottom, so as to suggest the human figure. These were surmounted by a head, usually that of Hermes (hence the name), and had a phallus in front, half-way up. They were used, not only as cult-objects, but for all manner of purposes, as mile-stones (see pseudo-Plato, Hipparchus, 228 D et seq.), boundary-marks, and so forth. But that most if not all of them were regarded with respect, if not actually worshipped, is clear from the famous mutilation of the Hermae. Just before the ill f ated expedition to Sicily sailed from Athens (415 B.e. ), "all the stone Hermae in the city of Athens . . . or most of them, had their faces smashed" (rEpEedinrmav Ta irpoawira, Thucydides vi., 27, 1) . The whole city was in an uproar of superstitious panic at this impiety, and numerous trials for sacrilege resulted. Herms are not infrequent in Roman sculpture, for example with heads of Silvanus or Iuppiter Terminus. In later times, all manner of fanciful herms were made and used as ornaments; these are commonly known by compound names, as Hermathena (Cicero, ad Att. I. 1, 5), Hermanubis, and the like; but it is not clear whether this means a berm with the head of Athena, Anubis, etc., instead of that of Hermes, or a double berm having the heads of both deities, Janus-fashion. Certainly both types existed, and the heads were by no means always those of gods.
See the classical dictionaries, and especially P. Paris in Daremberg Saglio (s.v.) . For the mutilation of the Hermae, see the histories of Greece; for stone-heaps, J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, (3rd ed.), ix. chap. 1.