Hermes and the Infant Dionysus

The Olympia site was hit by an earthquake during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian in the final years of the third century C.E, collapsing the roof of the Temple of Hera and burying the statue in rubble.

In 1874, the Greek state signed an agreement with Germany for an archaeological exploration of the Olympia site,[1] which was first dug in the French Morea expedition of 1829.

On 8 May 1877, in the temple of Hera, he uncovered the body (head, torso, legs, left arm) of a statue of a young man resting against a tree trunk covered by a mantle.

The face and torso of Hermes are striking for their highly polished, glowing surface, which John Boardman half-jokingly attributed to generations of temple workers.

At the time of its discovery, the hair retained slight traces of cinnabar,[3] a form of mercury sulfate with a red color, perhaps a preparation for gilding.