In the fifth century, Hermes was increasingly recognized as “Lord of Contests” (Agonios or Enagonios) and, with Herakles, became a patron of the gymnasium and palaistra (wrestling ground). From this time he was usually portrayed as a beardless, athletic youth with great homoerotic appeal, though stone herms continued to be sculpted with archaizing bearded heads. The games for Hermes (Hermaia) at Achaian Pellene, where warm cloaks were awarded as prizes, were recognized at a Panhellenic level by the fifth century, and Hermaian games were celebrated at many other sites, including Pheneos beneath Kyllene. Pindar’s victory odes often mention Hermes as the giver of victory, a god who “has charge of contests and the awarding of prizes.” In this guise of a youthful god associated with the physical education of boys, Hermes became an archetype of the ephebe, or young male citizen on the cusp of manhood.9 While the ephebic god is typical of the late Classical and Hellenistic periods, a few Archaic cults, particularly in the Peloponnese and Krete, also featured a youthful Hermes.
Recent excavations at Kato Symi in east-central Krete near Mt. Dikte show that cult activity in the Middle Minoan period continued unbroken through Archaic times, when the deities of the shrine were known as Hermes and Aphrodite. This sanctuary is noted for its fascinating series of bronze cut-out plaques from the seventh and sixth centuries. The subjects include hunters with bow and arrow, youths lifting or wrestling animals, scenes of homosexual courtship, and Hermes himself, who seems to have been the dominant partner at the sanctuary, to judge from the surviving dedications. The votives suggest a mostly male clientele engaged in typical Dorian aristocratic maturation and socialization rituals. At Kato Symi, Hermes appears as both beardless youth and mature adult, as if to illustrate his patronage of youths approaching manhood. Hermes’ title here was Kedrites (of the Cedar), and a seventh-century bronze plaque illustrates his epiphany as a beardless god sitting in a tree, gazing at the viewer. This concept is probably a Minoan survival, since he is only rarely connected with trees in other parts of the Greek world, and on the coins of Phaistos Zeus Welchanos similarly appears as a youthful god sitting in a tree.
World History
