Ancient object
Herm of Pericles
Marble portrait herm
Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Object provenance
Record checked- Object
- Marble portrait herm
- Material
- Marble
- Made
- Evidence level: Probable2nd century CE
- Copy of
- A Greek original of about 425 BCE attributed to Kresilas, known from Pliny's mention of a Pericles by that sculptor.
- Found
- Evidence level: ProbableTivoli
- Excavated
- Not recorded in this catalogue
- Inventory
- Not recorded in this catalogue
- Identification
- Evidence level: DocumentedPericles
The herm is inscribed 'Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian'. An inscribed portrait is the strongest form of ancient identification available, and it is why the Pericles type is secure where most philosopher portraits are not.
Condition — Herm bust with the head preserved.
Not recorded here
- Inventory number, which is cited inconsistently across sources
Read across
How to read the evidence labels
- Evidence level: Documented
- Supported by a named primary text or by excavated material evidence.
- Evidence level: Probable
- Supported by strong inference that most specialists accept.
- Evidence level: Disputed
- Substantial specialist disagreement exists; competing readings are stated.
- Evidence level: Literary
- Belongs to poetic or mythological construction rather than to history.
- Evidence level: Mythological
- Belongs to shared religious or mythic tradition rather than to any single text.
- Evidence level: Unknown
- The available evidence is insufficient to decide.
These labels describe the status of the evidence, not our confidence in a conclusion. A claim marked Literary is not a claim we doubt; it is a claim about what kind of thing a poem is.