RELIGION AND SOCIAL LIFE 109god of medicine) (Phaedo, 118a) perhaps in recognition of his comparatively painless
death. Whether in owning up to an Apollo Patrooshe is saying he has an image of the
god is not so clear. Images were common as votive objects in graves and temples.
Images were also common about the city on the testimony of Thucydides recounting
the mutilation of the Hermae (stone figures with an erect phallus: (see fig. 27), that
occurred just before the Athenian fleet set sail for Sicily in 415:
While these preparations were going on it was found that in one night nearly all
the stone Hermae in the city of Athens had had their faces disfigured by being cut
about. These are a national institution, the well-known square-cut figures, of which
there are great numbers both in the porches of private houses and in the temples.
No one knew who had done this, but large rewards were offered by the state in
order to find out who the criminals were, and there was also a decree passed
guaranteeing immunity to anyone, citizen, alien, or slave, who knew of any other
sacrilegious act that had taken place and would come forward with information
about it. The whole affair, indeed, was taken very seriously, as it was regarded
as an omen for the expedition, and at the same time served as evidence of a
revolutionary conspiracy to overthrow the democracy.
(6, 27)FIGURE 27 Herm: detail of Attic red-figure kraterby the Pan-painter. Naples Museo
Nationale