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Replica of Hermes Kriophoros (Ram-Bearer); Ministry of Culture Archaeological Receipts Fund; ca. 1988-1989; CC33

From:UC Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

Name/TitleReplica of Hermes Kriophoros (Ram-Bearer)

About this objectThis is a replica bronze statuette of the god Hermes holding a ram, after an original in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (99.489). The original dates to ca 500–490 BC and may have been used as a votive offered to the god at one of his sanctuaries.

Cult figures of Hermes, the god of flocks and herds, have been found in a number of sanctuaries throughout the Greek Peloponnese. Here the god takes on the mantle of the common herder and carries a ram under his left arm for sacrifice.

The statuette is known as Hermes kriophoros, ‘the ram bearer’: it was said that the god averted the plague at Tanagra in Boeotia by carrying a ram around the city walls. According to the writer Pausanias, the Tanagrans asked the sculptor Kalamis to make them a statue of Hermes the Ram Bearer. The event was celebrated annually in the city during the festival for the god and re-enacted by a beautiful adolescent boy in Tanagra.

MakerMinistry of Culture Archaeological Receipts Fund

Maker RoleCasting and Copying Workshop

Date Madeca. 1988-1989

PeriodLate Archaic

Place MadeGreece; Athens

Place NotesOriginal from Peloponnese, possibly Sicyon

Medium and MaterialsPlaster

Style and IconographyArchaic

TechniqueCasting (process)

Measurements280 x 75 x 100mm

Subject and Association KeywordsAnimals in art

Subject and Association KeywordsGods in art

Named CollectionThe James Logie Memorial Collection, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Credit LinePurchased, 1996.

Object TypeFigurine

Object numberCC33