Alexander in Amsterdam - Minerva

Arcadian enigma
John Prag
examines a
Greek bronze
figurine in the
Manchester
Museum and
explores the
possibility that
it is a unique
depiction
of Hermes
Tragophoros
– Hermes the
Goat-Carrier
In 2001, the Manchester Museum
received a substantial bequest
from Professor Robert Cook,
who had begun his teaching
career at Manchester University in the
1930s before going on to Cambridge
to become Laurence Professor of
Classical Archaeology. It was not his
first gift to the museum – he and his
brother John, also a Classical archaeologist,
had given several Greek vases in
the past. The money was to be spent on
Greek antiquities within seven years of
his death in 2000.
With careful husbanding of grants
and great help from James Ede, of
Charles Ede Antiquities, I used the
first tranche of Cook’s bequest to
16
1 2
purchase a Corinthian helmet from the
Charterhouse School collection, which
was then being sold at Sotheby’s. Four
years later, not only was Robert Cook’s
deadline beginning to loom, but so was
my own retirement from the Manchester
Museum. Again with Ede’s help, we
purchased a small bronze figurine of
Hermes, god of shepherds and flocks,
messengers and heralds, and also of
thieves (Figs 1, 2). Ede had acquired it
from the widow of the Greek ship-owner
Nicholas Embiricos, who had probably
bought it in the 1950s or 1960s, though
it may have been acquired by his father,
a collector of antiquities since the 1920s.
The figure stands with the right leg
advanced and both arms outstretched
Figs 1, 2. Bronze
figurine of Hermes,
late 6 th to early
5 th century BC.
Manchester Museum
2006.1. Acquired with
supporting grants
from the Purchase
Grant Fund of the
Museums, Libraries
and Archives Council
and the Victoria and
Albert Museum, the
Manchester Museum
Delta Travel Fund
and Lancashire and
Cheshire Antiquarian
Society Fund. Photos
courtesy of Charles
Ede Ltd. H. 9.6cm.
from the elbows, holding a small goat
on his left forearm. He perhaps held
a shallow offering-dish (patera) in the
right hand, but only part of the fixing
pin and a patera-like impression in the
palm of the hand remain. He wears
plain boots and a chiton which fits
tightly over his buttocks, and a round
travelling hat with a rolled brim. One
long lock of hair falls over each shoulder,
and two locks fall neatly down
his nape and between the shoulders.
Generally the back is less well finished
than the front. There are hammered
pins with which he was fastened to a
base (the present base is modern) and
the goat is also fixed by a pin that runs
through his chest and shows as a slight
Minerva September/October 2010