stood outside houses and in public places. These herms took the form of a pillar surmounted with a head
of Hermes and equipped with prominent male genitals (figure 59). Many people must have thought that
this act of desecration of the images of a god was at least partly responsible for the Athenian defeat in
Sicily. The atmosphere in Athens at the end of the fifth century was such that it was dangerous to raise
questions concerning traditional religious forms. This, presumably, is why Protagoras, the leading sophist
of the day and a man who spent a considerable amount of time in Athens, expressed himself as cautiously
as he did in the opening of his (now lost) treatise On the Gods: “Concerning the gods, I am in a position
to know neither whether they exist or not nor what their character is; among the many factors that hinder
knowledge are the inscrutability of the matter and the brevity of human existence.” Protagoras claimed to
be able to argue both sides of any issue with equal effectiveness and he was greatly admired for his
rhetorical skill, which he was willing to teach to anyone in exchange for a substantial fee. He seems to
have drawn the line, however, at arguing for and against the existence of the gods.
HERM A sculptural representation of a mortal or a divinity, usually the god Hermes (hence the
name), in the form of a pillar surmounted by a head and furnished with genitals (figure 59).