teapotgirl | This is what I learned in college (Reply)

From pantheon.org: "Originally Hermes was a phallic god, being attached to fertility and good fortune, and also a patron of roads and boundaries. His name coming from herma, the plural being hermaiherm was a square or rectangular pillar in either stone or bronze, with the head of Hermes (usually with a beard), which adorned the top of the pillar, and male genitals near to the base of the pillar. These were used for road and boundary markers. Also in Athens they stood outside houses to help fend off evil. In Athens of 415 BCE, shortly before the Athenian fleet set sail against Syracuse (during the Peloponnesian War), all the herms throughout Athens were defaced. This was attributed to people who were against the war. Their intentions were to cast bad omens on the expedition, by seeking to offend the god of travel. (This has never been proved as the true reason for the mutilation of the herms.)"

Heh.
What pantheon.org calls "defaced", my Classic professor called "breaking off the statues' penises." My prof also said people would rub the herms for good luck.
I had the same professor for "Introduction to Greek Civilization" and "Greek Mythology" (Mark Griffith for anyone wanting to check out his classes or books), and he liked to tell talk about the herm statues. I think he found them perversely amusing. In fact the picture is from my mythology class' web site.