A French Mid-Nineteenth Century copy of the so called Sandal-binder Hermes. The Roman figure is held in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The statue in the Louvre is a Roman marble copy of an original Greek Bronze by Lysippus. The appearance of the original, which stood in the Thermae of Zeuxippos in Constantinople, was described in detail by Christodoros of Koptos (491-518) : “There was Hermes … He stood and fastened up the thongs of his winged sandal with his right hand, yearning to rush forth upon his course. His swift right leg was bent at the knee, and on it he rested his left hand, and meanwhile he was turning his face up to heaven, as if he were hearing the commands of his king and father” Three other complete copies of the Sandal-binder Hermes have been discovered or unearthed since Gavin Hamilton recovered the first complete antique figure from the swamp of the Pantello in 1749, thereby establishing it’s identity firmly as Hermes and acknowledging it’s status as one of the received masterpieces in the canon of antiquity. It appears to have been placed ornamentally in baths and gymnasia.