Themistocles Herme of Ostia
A head herm with an inscription found in Ostia in 1939 is referred to as the Themistocles herm of Ostia in classical archeology , which forms the basis for identifying the Themistocles portrait. She found herself in the Caseggiato del Temistocle , a rather simple residential complex.
The term suggests that it was already in the 5th century BC. There were portraits that sought to reproduce the individual features of a person as precisely as possible, and not, as previously assumed, only since the 4th century BC. The herm is in the museum in Ostia, the Museo Archeologico Ostiense , on the excavation site. Plutarch's literary descriptions that have come down to them for Themistocles confirm rather than refute the authentic representation of his face. The faces of the tyrannicide group of Harmodios and Aristogeiton still have somewhat schematic forms of expression that stem from the late archaic period . They are not really portrayed yet.
The Herme found in Ostia is in all probability a Roman copy of an older statue portrait.
literature
- Andreas Linfert : The Themistocles Herme in Ostia . In: Ancient plastic . Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 87-94.
- Hans Diepolder : The portrait of Themistocles from Ostia . In: Pantheon . Vol. 31, 1943, p. 114.
- Heinrich Drerup : The Themistocles portrait in Ostia . In: Marburger Winckelmann program 1961. Marburg 1962, 21–28.
- Heinrich Drerup: The Themistocles portrait in Ostia . In: Klaus Fittschen (ed.): Greek portraits . Darmstadt 1988, pp. 286-293.
- Hellmut Sichtermann : The Themistocles of Ostia. Its effect in 25 years . In: Gymnasium . Vol. 71, 1964, pp. 348-381.
More specific literature at http://www.ostia-antica.org/biblio/keywords/key1010.htm