Street Art – Hermes

Light on the Rooftop  had an awesome post about street art on Freshly Pressed the other day.  She showed that non-conventional and public art can still be very high quality. I haven’t seen that level of street art while in Europe (unless the Bogside murals count) but I did catch an irreverent cartoon version of a classical Greek god.  I thought it was funny, or at least a funny departure from the typical Hermes iconography.

Hermes, as depicted in antiquity:

Terracotta oil flask depicting Hermes ca. 480–470 BC (Photo: Metropolitan Musuem of Art)

Modern Hermes painted above an abandoned building in Nafplion:  (Google Translate tells me that EPMHE is “Hermes” in Greek if the winged helmet weren’t enough.  On the billboard, he was facing an alligator in a Zoot suit which I am not sure how to interpret.)

Graffiti Hermes in Nafplion