Statue of Mercury

This lifesize statue of a male youth probably depicts the travelling god, Mercury. He stands with his weight on his right leg and his left slightly extended, leaning against a support in the form of a tree trunk. He wears a chlamys (cloak) pinned at the right shoulder with a circular fibula and draped across his torso and thighs, covering his left arm entirely but leaving the right bare. He grips the fabric of the cloak with his left hand.

The god may have held a caduceus (herald’s staff) in his right hand, which is missing from the wrist. The statue likely decorated a gymnasium, where the god’s youth and his association with journeys and transformation made him an appropriate patron deity of athletic training and discipline.