Herma
The Herma, also called herms and hermaic pillar, is a rectangular pillar topped with the head or bust of a divinity, usually Hermes, used in ancient Greece to mark roads and borders, as well as to provide protection and attract fertility.
The pillars could also be seen set at crossroads, corners of the streets, in front of temples and near tombs, houses, and public places.[1] They could also serve as sign-posts, engraved with distances, and often they were treated as altars, where people made offerings and prayed.[2]
During the Peloponnesian War the hermae were a common sight all throughout Greece.[2]
Behind the scenes
Historically, the hermae featured a phallus. This detail has been omitted in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. When a number of hermae in Athens were defaced over one night, the phallus was the specific target. Alkibiades was accused of this incident, and he was convicted in absentia.
Gallery
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A decorated herm
