or HERMA, among antiquaries, a sort of square or cubical figure of the god Mercury, usually made of marble, though sometimes of brâs or other materials, without arms or legs, and planted by the Greeks or Romans in their cross-ways.

Servius gives us the origin thereof, in his comment on the eighth book of the Æneid. Some shepherds, says he, having one day caught Mercury, called by the Greeks Hermes, asleep on a mountain, cut off his hands; from which he, as well as the mountain where the action was done, became denominated Cylleneus, from νυχλες, maimed; and thence, adds Servius, it is that certain statues without arms are denominated Hermes or Herme. But this etymology of the epithet of Cylleneus contradicts most of the other ancient authors; who derive it hence, that Mercury was born at Cyllene a city of Elis, or even on the mountain Cyllene itself, which had been thus called before him.

Suidas gives a moral explication of this custom of making statues of Mercury without arms. The Hermes, says he, were statues of stone placed at the vestibules or porches of the doors and temples at Athens; for this reason, that as Mercury was held the god of speech and of truth, square and cubical statues were peculiarly proper; having this in common with truth, that on what side ever they are viewed, they always appear the fame.

It must be observed, that Athens abounded more than any other place in Hermes: there were abundance of very signal ones in divers parts of the city, and they were indeed one of the principal ornaments of the place. They were also placed in the high-roads and cross-ways, because Mercury, who was the courier of the gods, presided over the high-ways; whence he had his surname of Trivius, from trivium; and that of Via-cus, from via.

From Suidas's account, above cited, it appears, that the terms termini, used among us in the door-cafes, balconies, &c. of our buildings, take their origin from these Athenian Hermes, and that it was more proper to call them hermetes than termini, because though the Roman termini were square stones, whereon a hand was frequently placed, yet they were rather used as land-marks and mere stones than as ornaments of building. See the articles MERCURY and THOTH.