Editing Hermes (section)

===As a god of boundaries===
[[File:Herma Hermes Getty Villa 79.AA.132.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Herm of Hermes; Roman copy from the Hermes Propyleia of Alcamenes, 50–100 AD]]
{{Further|Herm (sculpture)|Liminal deity}}

In Ancient Greece, Hermes was a phallic god of boundaries. His name, in the form ''herma'', was applied to a wayside marker pile of stones and each traveler added a stone to the pile. In the 6th century BC, [[Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)|Hipparchus]], the son of [[Pisistratus]], replaced the [[cairn]]s that marked the midway point between each village ''[[deme]]'' at the central ''[[agora]]'' of Athens with a square or rectangular pillar of stone or bronze topped by a bust of a bearded Hermes. An erect phallus rose from the base. In the more primitive [[Mount Kyllini]] or Cyllenian herms, the standing stone or wooden pillar was simply a carved phallus. "That a monument of this kind could be transformed into an [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] god is astounding," [[Walter Burkert]] remarked.<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], 1985. ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard University Press)</ref> In Athens, herms were placed outside houses, both as a form of protection for the home, a symbol of male fertility, and as a link between the household and its gods with the gods of the wider community.<ref name=transformer/>

In 415 BC, on the night when the Athenian fleet was about to set sail for [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] during the [[Peloponnesian War]], all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized. The Athenians at the time believed it was the work of saboteurs, either from Syracuse or from the anti-war faction within Athens itself. [[Socrates]]'s pupil [[Alcibiades]] was suspected of involvement, and one of the charges eventually made against Socrates which led to his execution 16 years later was that he had either corrupted Alcibiades or failed to guide him away from his moral corruption.<ref>[[Thucydides]], ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'', 6.27.</ref>