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HERMAE
Pillars, smaller at the base than at the summit, which terminated generally with a head of Hermes. In the earliest times, Hermes (in whose worship the number 4 played a great part) was worshipped [especially in Arcadia, see Pausanias, viii 4 section 4; cp. iv 33 section 4] under the form of a simple quadrangular pillar of marble or wood, with the significant mark of the male sex. As art advanced, the pillar was surmounted, first with a bearded head, and afterwards with a youthful head of the god. Hermes being the god of traffic, such pillars were erected to him in the streets and squares of towns; in Attica, after the time of Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, they were also erected along the country roads as mile-stones. Sometimes they were inscribed with apophthegms and riddles, in addition to directions as to the way; [sometimes also with inscriptions in honour of those who had fought bravely for their country. Dem., Lept., 112; Aeschines, Or. 3 section 183.] In Athens there was an especially large num of them; in the market-place to the N.W. of the Acropolis, the Hermae, erected partly by private individuals and partly by corporations, formed a long colonnade extending between the Hall of Paintings (stoa poikile) and the King's Hall (stoa basileios). Accordingly, the latter was sometimes called the Hall of Hermae. When the heads of other divinities (such as Athene, Heracles, Eros) were placed on such pillars, these were then called Hermathene, Hermeracles, Hermeros.
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gutter splint
gutter splint
gutter splint