Dionysiac Herm

This herm, a square pillar in colored marble, is topped with the head of an elderly Silenus. It may have been used as a table support in a peristyle or garden. (In Greek mythology, Silenus was the foster father and tutor of the god Dionysus and the leader of the satyrs, traditionally pictured as a fat, drunken, jovial, old man with pointed ears. The name was applied also to groups of woodland deities said to resemble satyrs.)