Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Hermae

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

HERMAE (Ἑρμαῖ). Mercuries; a particular kind of statues, in which only the head, and sometimes the bust, was modelled, all the rest being left as a plain four-cornered post; a custom which descended from the old Pelasgic style of representing the god Mercury. (Macrob. Sat. i. 19. Juv. viii. 53. Nepos, Alcib. vii. 3.) The trunk was sometimes surmounted with a single head, more usually with a double one, as in the example (Hermae/1.1) from an original in the Capitol at Rome; and the personages most commonly selected for the purpose were the bearded Bacchus, Fauns, and philosphers. Pillars of this description were extensively employed for many purposes; as signposts; as the uprights in an ornamental fence or railing, to which use the original of our engraving was applied (the cavities being visible on each of its sides, which received the cross-bars between post and post): in the circus, for holding the rope or bar which kept the doors of the stalls (carceres) closed until the chariots received the signal to come out (Cassiodor. Var. Ep. iii. 51.); as shown by the illustration at p. 119.; and, in short, for any purpose for which a post would be employed.

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  Hermae/1.1