From: baird@newstaff.com   
      
   Paul Nutteing  wrote:   
      
   > You'd think the internet was ideal for confirming   
   > the following but no.   
   > A recent UK TV prog on classical Italy presented by Brian Sewell   
   > made mention of the following, can anyone confirm   
   > or was it just hokum.   
   > In classical times there used to be rude garden features   
   > of statuary called herm for doing unspeakable things   
   > with. Over time these became just sticks that the top   
   > was painted red every year. Then these somehow transmogrified   
   > into red hatted garden gnomes.   
      
   The herm, to the best of my knowledge, stood either outside the front   
   door of a house or at a crossroads; it represented (again, to the best   
   of my knowledge) a guardian spirit akin to or identified with Hermes,   
   the patron god of travelers.  It was priapic in nature, true, but the   
   only examples I've seen pictures of had the, um, dangly bits carved at   
   the side of the pillar rather than on top.   
      
   No telling what the Romans got up to when they took over, though....   
      
   Blessed be,   
   Baird   
      
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