Duble herma of Socrates and Seneca Antikensammlung Berlin 05

The Double Herm of Socrates and Seneca is an ancient Roman statue from the first half of the third century AD. The herm depicts the Greek philosopher

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

on one side, and the Roman

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy * STOIC, a programming language * ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll * ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain * ...

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

on the other. It currently belongs to the Antikensammlung Berlin, found in the

Altes Museum The Altes Museum (English: ''Old Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Built from 1825 to 1830 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it i ...

.Inventary number SK 391 (R 106)

Description

The two philosophers are joined together at the back of the head; their chests are in the shape of a herm. Both men have the usual cloak of a philosopher or orator above their left shoulder, although Socrates also wears an undershirt. The bearded Socrates is given a

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...

-like form, as in literary descriptions and other portraits. Seneca, on the other hand, is depicted as clean-shaven with a receding hairline. His small, full-lipped mouth is pursed. It is speculated that the depiction of Seneca derives from a work created between AD 50 and 60—within the lifetime of the philosopher. In ancient art, double herms were a common statue type. While in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

they were displayed in public rooms, in the

Roman empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

they were shown in private spaces. Thus, the combination of the two philosophers here owed something to the personal inclinations of the person who commissioned it, even if it is not clear why these two philosophers were linked in particular. Probably it has to do with the fact that they were both forced to commit suicide. The presentation of philosophers (and poets) as double herms was the most common use of this genre. This parallel presentation is also seen in literature, for example in the ''Parallel Lives'' of

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

Identification

The double herm is important to scholarship since it is the only image that can certainly be said to depict Seneca. The attribution is proven by a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inscription on the left side of the bust (from the point of view of someone looking at Seneca), while Socrates is identified by a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

inscription on the right hand side. The identification of Socrates can be considered certain based on comparison with many other depictions of Socrates, many of which are of much better quality. The portrait of Seneca on the other hand is used today to identify other portraits and statues of Seneca.

References

Bibliography

* Max Kunze. "Doppelherme des Sokrates und Seneca," in Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Antikensammlung (ed.), ''Die Antikensammlung im Pergamonmuseum und in Charlottenburg''. von Zabern, Mainz 1992, , pp. 215f. *
Socrates and Seneca
'. in Königliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.),

Alexander Conze Alexander Christian Leopold Conze (10 December 1831 – 19 July 1914) was a German archaeologist, who specialized in ancient Greek art. He was a native of Hanover, and studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In 1855 he obtained his ...

(foreword): ''Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen mit Ausschluss der pergamenischen Fundstücke''. Spemann, Berlin 1891, , pp. 158–159. (Directory-No. 391) {{coord, 52.5208, N, 13.3964, E, source:wikidata, display=title Archaeological discoveries in Italy 3rd-century Roman sculptures Altes Museum Cultural depictions of Socrates Cultural depictions of Seneca the Younger Busts of writers category:Classical sculptures of the Berlin State Museums