She also acknowledges that most modern scholars accept the conclusion that members of a hetaireia were responsible for the mutilation of the herms, likely as a pledge of group trust ( pistis). In Chapter 14 (“Cherchez Les Femmes”) Hamel briefly engages with the feminist theory presented by Eva C.

What was the mutilation of the herms?

The so-called "mutilation of the herms" is an important episode in Athenian history. ... In 415 B.C. the Athenians woke to find that during the night most of the herms in Athens (priapic statues of the Greek god Hermes) had been vandalized. The damage was too widespread for the act to be dismissed as a youthful prank.

What happened to the herms of Athens in 415 BCE?

On 7 June 415 BCE, various statues of the god Hermes were desecrated in Athens. ... However, on the morning of 7 June 415 BCE a general cause of alarm occurred in Athens; hermai, statues of the god Hermes, throughout the city had their faces smashed and their phalluses hacked off.