Hérmos was an Ancient Greek deity who inhabited the homonymous river (the present Gediz) located in the ancient Greek region of Lidia (modern-day Turkey”). He was the son of the titan Oceanus and his sister-wife Tethys. Ermos was a later version of Hérmos as a common Greek name.
The term intaglio refers to a small image that has been engraved into a gemstone and usually set in a piece of jewellery, most commonly a ring. Such artistic form has its origin in Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with the appearance of cylinder and stamp seals, whereby decorations and patterns were engraved into soft stones. During the Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire, the art of intaglio reached its apogee, with there being a steady decline in craftsmanship in the late Imperial Rome, until a revival of interest with the Byzantine and during the Renaissance.
To discover more about Intaglios, please visit our relevant blog post: Intaglios: Miniature Masterpieces.
