Sotheby (London), Sale Cat., 10 July 1979, no. 227 (ill.)

1979.06

Figurine of Eros

Purchased. Ht 17.8cm.

The Eros stands with his left arm resting on a herm. Intact. Pale brown clay, orange-red and micaceous in the core. Oval vent-hole in rear.

The figure’s right leg carries his weight while his left is bent at the knee and relaxed. His head leans to the right and slightly down. His hair is shown as wavy at the front and sides, and is drawn back over the head in melon waves terminating in a small, flat, plaited bun at the back. His right hand comes across his stomach and was perhaps originally conceived as holding an object. By his right leg is an amphora or, more probably, hydria. The head of the herm is done in archaistic style with tresses of long hair coming forward over the shoulders; the beard is fairly long and straight-cut at the bottom. The herm has an arm-stump visible at the side as well as erect phallos at the front. The group is set on a rectangular base with mouldings above and below.

Abundant white slip is preserved over the front and sides. There are traces of pink-red on the wings, the lower part of the herm, and in a band along the central part of the plinth-base. Purple-brown on Eros’ hair. Black is applied on the hair of the herm (but not its beard or side locks) and in a band on the upper and perhaps the lower part of the base; also in bands on the vessel at the figure’s side.

The group is well and carefully modelled. In general terms, such as proportion and musculature, the handling of the figure reflects what is generally thought of as Lysippean influence. The piece is clearly Hellenistic but a more precise date is not easy to determine. The wings are not of the short form current at the end of the fourth century BC, nor does the Eros have the chubby body-form popular at that period. The fashion for so-called melon hair seems to have developed during the third quarter of the fourth century, the primary dating being terracottas from the ‘Coroplast’s Dump’ in the Athenian Agora (D.B. Thompson, Hesperia 21, 1952, 138; see also H. Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemër [Berlin 1975] 89-90; A. Stewart, American Journal of Archaeology 102, 1998, 280). In early versions the hair was drawn into a relatively loose bunch at the back of the head, but in later versions it is plaited into a small flat bun close to the head. Ours, with the fine loose hair hanging down below, is a later development still. It should indicate a date no earlier than the second quarter of the third century, and it is perhaps best to see the group as eclectic work of the second century if not later. It may originate from the coast of Asia Minor.

The archaistic herm is a fascinating element although they are not uncommon in this series. There is probably no need to link it with the archaistic Herm of Alkamenes of the late fifth century which itself echoed earlier models. (The original stood on the Athenian Acropolis, but there was an influential copy in Pergamon.) The basic concept here is of Eros in a sanctuary as created by the herm and the water in the hydria, and the implication is that he is a figure one might meet there. This kind of function for a sanctuary is itself not uncommon: boys might meet girls. One finds women surprised by satyrs while bathing or even while going about their business, but the Eros implies that they might meet a better sort of male. One also finds images of Aphrodite in a sanctuary: see for example the terracotta reliefs from Myrina in Mollard-Besques, Catalogue raisonné ii (Paris 1963) pl. 106b, pl. 190a.  Figurines of Eros are of course extremely common, but for one by a herm approached by a Maltese dog, see pl. 74a in the same volume (first century BC), or one leaning on a herm, pl. 54c (also first century). For South Italian Erotes at herms, see Mollard-Besques iv, pl. 9a-c, pl. 79. For an attractive Myrina figurine of Aphrodite crowning an archaistic herm, see R.A. Higgins, Greek Terracottas (London 1967) pl. 53e, L. Burn and R. Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum iii (London 2001) no. 2276 pl. 49; it dates towards 100 BC .

On herms in general, see R. Lullies, Die Typen der griechischen Herme (Königsberg 1931); H. Wrede, Die antike Herme (Mainz 1985); on herms in sanctuaries as seen on Athenian red-figure vases, see M. Halm-Tisserant, “Le paysage sacré dans la peinture de vases grecque”, Ktema 24, 1999, 243-250, D. Jaillard, “Le pilier hermaïque dans l'espace sacrificiel”, Melanges d’Archéologie et d'Histoire - Antiquité 113, 2001, 341-363, C. Solé García, “Significado de los hermai en la antigua Grecia”, in: P. Fernández Uriel and I. Rodríguez López (eds), Iconografía y sociedad en el Mediterraneo antiguo: homenaje a la profesora Pilar González Serrano (Madrid 2011) 139-146, and then the brief comments in the Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum, ii (Los Angeles 2004), svv Cult Images 436ff with pl. 101 no. 154, a red-figure calyx-krater of the mid-fourth century with an Eros before a herm.

Sotheby (London), Sale Cat., 10 July 1979, no. 227 (ill.)