Hermes (Greek stamp) Hermes (Greek stamp) The Greek god Hermes, messenger of the Gods in the Greek mythology, is the representation chosen, in 1860, by the Kingdom of Greece to illustrate its first postal stamps. The first type, the "large Hermes head", was issued in October 1861, and stayed in circulation up to 1886, it was then replaced by the second type, the "small Hermes head". The "large Hermes head" stamps, have been reissued, overprinted, in 1900 and 1901 in order to mitigate the delay of shipment of the stamps of the third type, the "flying Hermes" by the British printer J. P.
Altar of the Twelve Gods was a Pentelic marble statue base inscribed on its front: thus identifying the enclosure as that of the Altar of the Twelve Gods. As of 1992, "nearly nine-tenths" of the Altar lay buried beneath the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway, with only the southwest corner of the enclosure visible. More of the Altar was uncovered by Greek archaeologists in 2011 when the train tracks were temporarily removed for maintenance work. Once the Altar was exposed, archaeologists and a group promoting the revival of ancient Greek polytheism filed legal injunctions to prevent replacement of the tracks of the Athens-Piraeus Railway. The court ruled