In architecture, a squared stone pillar or post, typically carved with a bust or head on top, used as a boundary marker or decorative element.
From Latin 'herma,' derived from Hermes, the Greek messenger god, who was honored with these distinctive stone posts (hermae) in ancient Greece and Rome.
Ancient Greeks literally turned the god Hermes into street furniture—hermae marked sacred spaces and property boundaries, and Romans copied the idea so enthusiastically that these 'Hermes-heads' became all over the Mediterranean world.
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