This banded agate ring stone represents Hermes wearing a chlamys, a winged cap and holding the kerykeion. The god is pulling a bearded figure from the ground, presumably a soul emerging from the shades. The image has been interpreted as a representation of Hermes in his role of Psychopompos (guide of the souls), escorting the souls of the dead to the banks of the River Styx.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Banded agate ring stone
Period:Hellenistic
Date:3rd–2nd century BCE
Culture:Italic
Medium:Agate, banded
Dimensions:Other: 5/16 x 1/16 x 1/2 in. (0.8 x 0.2 x 1.3 cm)
Classification:Gems
Credit Line:Gift of John Taylor Johnston, 1881
Accession Number:81.6.28
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1920. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style. no. 90, p. 72, pl. 29, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1955. Ancient Italy : a study of the interrelations of its peoples as shown in their arts. p. 29, fig. 95, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1956[1920]. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style: Greek Etruscan, and Roman. no. 225, p. 55, pl. 34, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Martini, Wolfram. 1971. Die Etruskische Ringsteinglyptik. no. 118, pp. 95, 141, pl. 23, 5, Heidelberg: F.H. Kerle.
Schlüter, Margildis, Gertrud Horster, and Peter Zazoff. 1975. Antike Gemmen in deutschen Sammlungen: Hannover, Kestner-Museum, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Vol. 4. p. 32, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1990. Vol. 5: Herakles-Kenchrias. "Hermes," p. 340, no. 644b, pl. 251, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Bodel, John P. and Stephen Tracy. 1997. Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA : A Checklist. p. 200, Rome: American Academy in Rome.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 2006[1920]. Catalogue of Engraved Gems of the Classical Style: Greek Etruscan, and Roman, 2nd edn. no. 225, p. 55, pl. 34, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
de Puma, Richard Daniel. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 7.83a, p. 283, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
