Marble statue of Aphrodite

1st - 3rd century AD copying original of 2nd century BC

Copy of work attributed to Praxiteles

Roman after Classical Greek original. Copy or adaptation of a Greek statue of the 2nd century B.C.

This sculpture of Aphrodite is a Roman copy of a Greek type during the late 2nd century BCE. The original sculpture, attributed to Praxiteles, was highly popular in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Due to its popularity, numerous copies were made, with some variations on the theme. In this example, dated to the 1st – 3rd century CE in Rome, the goddess was depicted adjusting her hair.

There are two myths associated with Aphrodite’s conception. According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Dione. Hesiod gives a different account of her birth. When Kronos severed his father Uranus’ genitals off the coast of Cythera, Aphrodite was born from the foam. Despite the different genesis stories of Aphrodite, the Greeks and Romans believed the goddess to be the pinnacle of femininity, and an example of divine beauty which was unattainable for mere mortals.

On view at the Royal Ontario Museum in Gallery of Greece