Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

602 IIERMAE. HERMAE.
ewhich the hlereditas might receive additions, were (HEIcsc. s. tc.). Alli'ppaeos Apos near Ithaca
strictly void, and such acts could only have their is imentioned in thie Odyssey (xvi. 471); Strabo
legal effect on the supposition that the slave had noticed many EpuEca on the roads in Elis (viii.
an owner of a sufficient legal capacity; and accord- p. 343); and even now an ancieint heap of stones
ingly, the fiction of law gave validity to the act of mar be seen onl the boundary of Laconia (Ross,
the slave by relation to the known legal capacity I'clop. vol. i. pp. 18, 174). The religious respect
of the late owner, and not by relation to the yet palid to such heaps of stones, especially at the meetullnascertained owner who mnighlt not have such ings of roads, is shown by the custom of each passer
legal capacity. The following are examples: by throwing a stone onto the heap (Nicand. T/le.
When a Ronlllan, who had a legal capacity to 150); this custom was also observed with referlmake a will, died intestate, and another person ence to the Hermae of later times, at least to those
appointed as his heres a slave, who belonged to which stood where roads met. (Anth. Gracec. oc.
this hereditas which was still without an owner, such iuf;'a cit.) Such heaps of stories were also seen by
institution of a heres would be valid by virtue of Stralo onl the roads in Egypt (xvii. p. 818).
this fiction, because it had reference to the legal Another mnode of marking a boundary or other de.
capacity of the deftusct. If there had been no such finite locality was by a pillar of stone, originally
fictionl, the validity of the inlstitution would have lunhewil, the sacred character of which was marked
been doubtful, for the unascertained legitimuts heres by pouring oil upon it anId adorning it (Theophrast.
might be stn intestabilis, who (ait least according to 16, corlp. Gcnesis xxviii. 18, 22, xxxi. 45 —48,
the old law) could not be instituted heres. -If a where both the pillar and the heap of stones are
soldier died and left as will, which w-as snot yet set itp for a witness, xxxv. 14). The Egyptians
opened, another testator might institute as heres a obelisk probably belongs to the same class of monuslave belongingr to the soldier's bereditas, because sllents.
the institution, according to this fiction, had refer- Referring the reader, for the further examination
ence to the deceased; but if there were nlot this of these mnatters, to works in which they are disfiction, the institution might be void, inasomu (cl s ciussed at length (Zoega, cle Orig. et Us. Obelisc.,
the uniascertained heres might be a peregrinus who Romae, 1797, p. 217; Gerhard, de Religione
had no testanentifactio with this other testattor. - Iernzurtlr, Berol. 1845, 4to.; Otto, ce Dnis ViaIt was to provide for such cases as these only, that /l&uts, c. 7; Miiller, A rchiiol. d. KunT2st, ~ 66;
this fiction was inltroduced; and it liad no other Preller, in Pauly's Real-Eslcy. d. Clrtss. Alltesth.
object than to facilitate certain acquisitions by s. v. illrc'curizs'us, vol. iv. p. 1845), we assume that,.means of the slaves who belonged to an hereditas." of these ileaps of stones ansd pillars, those which
This masterly exposition is by Sa-6igny (nSycstem marked boundaries were either originally symbols
des ecut. P1. R. vol. ii. p. 363). of, or were afternwarcls consecrated to, the god
(Gains, 2. 99-190,'. 1-24; Ulpian, FiFoq. IHernmes. It is not denied that such rude memoxxii., Dig. 283, 29; Inst. 2, 3; Rein, Dass Roi- rials were at first symbols of the various gods alike,
miscle PiuatrecAt, p. 361, &c. Erbrechllt, a sefll but at a very early period they came to be more
compenldiuml of the Law of Hereditas, as it appears especially associated with the worship of Hermes.
chiefly in the Latin classics; Vanugerow, Pzand/eukte, The first attempt at the artistic development of
&c. Erbrecht, vol. ii. The chapter on Erbrecht in the blocks of stone and wood, by which, in the
Puchta's lnstituutionuecn, &c. i p. 215, &c. is colcise earliest period of idol-worship, all the divinities
and very clear.) [G. GL.j were represented, was by adding to them a head,
HERMAE (Epa?), -ald the dilinutive Herumuli in the features of which the characteristics of the
(Ep,/et:a), statues composed of a head,usuually that of god were supposed to be expressed; and afterwards
the god Hermes, placed on a quadranrgular pillar, otlher mnemnbers of the body were addedl, at first
the hleight of which corresponds to tile stature of w ith a symbolical ileaning. These changes prothe human body ('reTrpciwSvos pyaof-a, Thuc. vi. daced the Hermuae, such as they are described by
27;'o'b ar ia TOb TeTpcyW'oVY, Paus. iv. 33. ~ 4, the anlcieint authors, and as we 1now have thelm.
s. 3). Some difficulties are involved in the ques- The phallus formed an essential part of the symbol,
tion of their origin, and of their meaning as symbols probably because the divinity represented:by it
of Hermes. One of the most imlportant features was in the euarliest times, before the worship of
in the msythology of Hermes is his presidence over Dionysus was imported firom the East, the perthe common intercourse of life, traffic, journeys, sonificationl of the reproductive powers of mnature.
roads, boundaries, and soforth, and there can be no So the symbol is described lby Herodotus, who
doubt that it Lwas chiefly in such relations as these ascribes the oiigin of it to the Pelasgians, whlo
that he was intended to be represented by the colmmunicated it to the Athenians, and they to
Iicriutae of the Greeks and by the TerC'7inini of the the other Greeks. (I-erod. ii. 51; Pint. ans Seni sit
1tounans, when the latter were identified with the Resp. per. 28. p. 797, f.; Cic. de Nat. Deos'. iii.
Hermee. It is therefore nmatural thact we shllould 22; comp. Creuzer's sote, in Baehr's edition of lHelookl for the existence of this s-ymbol in the very rodotus.) Pusaniias gives the same account of the
earliest times in which the use of boutndary-moarLks matter (i. 24. ~ 3, iv. 33. ~ 3. s. 4), auod also states
was required; and in such tinles thle symbols that the Arcadianis were particularly fond of the
wvould be of the simnplest character, a heap of stones yaeyajAa TrepCa'o-Yov (viii. 48. ~ 4. s. 6 where
or an umihewn bloclk of' miarble. Now we find that the statuse referred to is one of Zeus), which is
there were in many parts of Greece heaps of stones
by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, from p?/a, a keap? (comnp. Buttlmanton, Leril. pp. 302,
aldul on the boundaries of lands, lhich were called 303). It would seem, at all events, that the
p/aueia or EptzeZa, Ep/aeom AoXo'pot and Epj/aKces* words are in some way connected; though the
question, whether the god took his name from the' Lessinog, Bbttiger (Andeust. p. 45), and others synmbol, or the symbol from the god, carnnot be
derive these owords, and also the name of the god, entered into here.