CLAS 160D2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Salmacis, Oxhide, Thriae
27 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Aka statue of hermes with a baby dionysus. Commemorated a peace treaty between elis and arcadia. Used to show leaving one province and entering the next. Herms are depicted in some religious art. Maia is the daughter of titan atlas and pleione. Hermes leaps out of his mother"s arms and gets into trouble. He picks up a tortoise outside of the cave, guts it, then attaches some reeds to it, stretches an ox-hide to the belly and strings it with some sheep-gut and jams out. That night, hermes cleverly steals apollo"s cattle, leading them backwards (to disguise their trail) and wearing sandals which he invents to cover his footprints. When confronted the next morning, he denies any wrongdoing, claiming that he was just born yesterday. Eventually, they appeal to zeus who gets to the truth. The two-half brothers reconcile and exchange gifts. The lyre for access to the thriae. This story tells us not all divine powers are morally upright.
