HERMES
Hermes (Ἑρμῆς) · Roman Mercury
Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Hermes.
Hermes and the Infant Dionysus
Attributed to Praxiteles, c. 340 BC
A marble statue attributed to Praxiteles, discovered in 1877 in the ruins of the Temple of Hera at Olympia and now in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. It shows Hermes pausing on his journey to deliver the infant Dionysus to the nymphs who would raise him, the god's missing right arm once dangling an object before the reaching child. The soft modelling and relaxed contrapposto have made it one of the most admired works of fourth-century BC Greek sculpture.
Flying Mercury
Giambologna, c. 1580
A bronze statue by the Mannerist sculptor Giambologna, now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. The messenger god is caught in full flight, balanced on one foot upon a breath of air issuing from the mouth of a wind god, caduceus in hand and winged sandals barely touching the earth. Its weightless poise made it one of the most influential and widely reproduced sculptures of the late Renaissance.