Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

182

SCULPTURE FROM ERETRIA.

The question who is represented, is not so easy to answer.
But the following sentence from Furtwiingler (op. tit., p. 233) may
lead us to the light: "It need not surprise us to find the
Doryphoros so often adapted to the representation of Hermes in
Roman times, for copies of this statue were placed in the various
palaestrae and gymnasia, which were all consecrated to Hermes."
What is more natural than that we should find in the Eretria
gymnasium another type of Hermes besides the stereotyped
archaistic form already described? The other finds there point
to the Roman times, when this type was a favorite. This natural
naming ot our head gives the supposition of a Polycleitan origin
for our head a sort of corroboration. What the Hermes of
Polycleitus was like may be shown by the Fins d'Annecy head.17
It is not necessary, however, that our head should have repre-
sented Hermes. It may have been a Heracles or some human
athlete.

Rufus B. Richardson.

Athens, March, 1896.

17 Gazette Arch, li (1876), plate 18.