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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Alexander Wilbourne Weddell 



THE HERMES OF" PRAXITELES 



This matchless marble, discovered at Olympia in 1877, is considered by many critics the 

 finest example of Praxitelean sculpture extant. It is interesting to recall that while our 

 modern art lovers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for masterpieces on canvas, the people 

 of Cnidus once refused to sell a statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles to King Nicomedes, although 

 that monarch offered in exchange to cancel the whole debt of the city, which was enormous. 



