This is a Roman copy of an Attic work of about 410-400 B. C. representing Hermes in the form of a pillar. In Athens, the different types of hermae included those donated by councillors so they could be situated in a place in front of the Stoa Basileios or the Stoa Poikile of the Agora called the “place of the hermae”. The official nature of these hermae, whose bases often bore honorary inscriptions, may have determined the appearance of this herm symbolising Zeus or a “hero of the tribes” of the city. The bust is modern, as is the inscription identifying the person depicted as the poet Aristophanes.