PLATE XLIV
Hermes and the Infant Dionysos
This famous statue apparently refers to the Theban legend which relates that Dionysos, just after his birth from the thigh of Zeus and prior to his sojourn with the nymphs of Mount Nysa, was put in the safe-keeping of Hermes. Praxiteles has seized on this brief period as the supreme moment in the career of Hermes for revealing him as the ideal protector of boys and youths. In looking upon this highly spiritualized creation one forgets that this god was the divine prince of knaves and liars. From the original marble of Praxiteles (fourth century b.c.), discovered in the Heraion at Olympia (Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler griechischer und römischer Sculptur, No. 466).
