HERMA DEPICTING BACCHUS
Roman Culture
HERMA DEPICTING BACCHUS
Marble.
Height: 21 cm. Width: 11.5 cm. Maximum thickness: 8.5 cm.
Roman period. 1st century A.D.
Origin
Romanina la Baja. Jerez de la Frontera. Cádiz.
Description
Hermas are rectangular pilasters that support a bearded head. Initially, these appeared to depict Hermes in his double role as god of fertility and protector of travellers, thus accounting for the name of this type of sculpture. By its formal appearance – smooth upper part and flat base - this head was certainly placed on a pilaster and fixed to a wall. The figure depicted - with long bushy beard and curly hair - is the god Bacchus, of whom there are many manifestations in the domestic field. He is also linked with wine-growing and commercialising the wine product. It may have been situated in a garden or peristyle of a rural villa in ager ceretanus.
Bibliography
- Esteve, M. (1971): “Hermes báquico de Jerez de la Frontera”. Archivo Español de Arqueología, Vol. 44 p. 175.
