The Narrator as Hermes: a study of the early short fiction

Abstract

Perhaps we can even identify the god. In a marvellous group in the British Museum he stands beside Alcestis. The S curve of his body accentuated by his slightly raised left foot, he seems, caduceus in hand, to be urging the group forward. Almost contemporary with the Hermes of Praxiteles, he shares the same languid beauty; indeed, he seems even younger. To the left of Alcestis, if, in fact, the draped female figure between the two beautiful boys is the wife of Admetus, stands Death, apparently beckoning her forward. His arm, broken at the hand, his head tilted slightly back, he is framed by two full-length wings that are raised only slightly (much less so than the drapery of either Alcestis or Hermes, more a tracery than a relief) from the marble surface of the column base. To the right of Hermes, but badly broken, is another female figure, possibly Persephone. If that identification is correct, she is well located, for the group as it now stands is directly opposite the seated Demeter of Cnidus. The mother, at once dumpy and divine, is alone on her fragmented throne, although the shrine at Cnidus was, we are assured, dedicated to Demeter and Kore, so that originally a standing figure of Persephone was at her side.