December 14

Just because: 

Herma

Originating in ancient Greece, a Herma was a sculpture (left, with phallus broken off) with a head above a plain, uncarved middle section, beneath which male genitals were carved at the appropriate height. In the earliest times Greek divinities were worshiped by forming a stack of stones, either at road crossings or on the boundaries of lands. The religious respect paid to these heaps of stones was illustrated by the custom of each passer-by tossing another stone onto the pile, often anointing it with oil. Later there was the addition of a head and phallus to the column, which took a quadrangular shape (the number 4 was sacred to Hermes). The phallus formed an essential part of the symbol, because the divinity represented by it was the personification of the reproductive powers of nature.

These Herma statues eventually found their place at crossings and boundaries as protection, in front of temples, near tombs, in wrestling schools, libraries, porticoes, and diverse public places. A special use was at street corners and main roads, used as sign-posts, with distances inscribed upon them.

Before his role as protector of merchants and travelers, Hermes was a phallic god, associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. His name comes from the word herma referring to a square or rectangular pillar of stone, terracotta, or bronze; a bust of Hermes’ head, usually with a beard, with male genitals adorning the lower section. In Athens, where hermai were most numerous and venerated, they were placed outside houses as a sign of good luck. They would be rubbed or anointed with olive oil and adorned with garlands or wreaths. This superstition persists today in areas around the Mediterranean, where statues of mythological creatures have parts that are shiny from being continually touched or rubbed for good luck or fertility.

Need a better reason to buy your mother that Hermès scarf for Christmas?