Head of an Aphrodite Statue Uncovered in Southern Turkey

From the Deccan Herald
Tuesday 24 September 2013
News updated at 3:39 AM IST

Goddess Aphrodite statue unearthed in Turkey
New York, Sep 23, 2013, (PTI)

A life-sized marble head of Aphrodite - the goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology - has been unearthed during excavations in Southern Turkey.

Archaeologists made the finding while uncovering an ancient pool-side mosaic at Antiochia ad Cragum (Antioch on the cliffs) on the Mediterranean coast.

Buried under soil for hundreds of years, the statue has some chipping on her nose and face, 'LiveScience' reported.

Researchers think her presence could shed light on the extent of the Roman Empire's wide cultural influence at the time of its peak.

The excavators had been looking for more parts of the largest Roman mosaic ever found in Turkey: a 150 square meters marble floor elaborately decorated with geometric designs, adorning a plaza outside a Roman bath.

During fresh excavations, they found the statue head lying face-down. The researchers think the marble head was likely long separated from its body; traces of lime kilns have been found near the site, suggesting many statues and hunks of stone would have been burned to be reused in concrete.

The presence of an Aphrodite sculpture suggests Greek and Roman influence had become mainstream in far-flung cities like Antiochia ad Cragum in the first and second centuries AD, the excavation's director Michael Hoff said.
Aphrodite's head is the first fragment of a monumental statue to be found at Antiochia ad Cragum over eight years of digging, Hoff, an art historian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said.

"We have niches where statues once were. We just didn't have any statues," Hoff said.

"Finally, we have the head of a statue. It suggests something of how mainstream these people were who were living here, how much they were a part of the overall Greek and Roman traditions," said Hoff.

The researchers also found other traces of Roman influence, such as a second mosaic adorning a building that looks like it might be a temple.

The Dart Aphrodite Donated to the University of Southern California

Lovely - and the model wasn't anorexic, either.

From USC's Daily Trojan Online
New sculpture donated to USC’s Tutor Campus Center
By bridget mcanany · Daily Trojan
Posted January 12, 2011 (4 days ago) at 11:54 pm



The Dart Aphrodite.
All that is left is her head!  Oh my!

The Ronald Tutor Campus Center is now home to an additional attraction: an extremely rare, 2,000-year-old ancient Greek sculpture, of which there is only one other known replica in existence currently residing in the Louvre in Paris.

The Dart Aphrodite is a product of the ancient Roman practice of making copies of ancient Greek pieces to preserve aging artwork. USC’s Dart Aphrodite will be displayed outside the Admission Center on the second floor of the Campus Center against the recycled glass wall.

The sculpture is a slightly larger than life-size head of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love. The head is all that remains of the original piece, as the rest of the body has been lost over time.

Part of the goddess’ nose has been scraped off, but overall the piece is in surprisingly good condition, said Cindy Robinson, educational program coordinator at the Campus Center.

“This piece will be beautiful, convenient and educational,” Robinson said. “We’re going to have an artifact on campus and professors, students and guests alike are going to seek it out and study it.”

In the mid-1990s, the piece’s owner, actress Jane O’Brien Dart, patron of the arts and donor of the Roski School of Fine Arts at USC, invited then-Dean of the School of Fine Arts John Pollini to visit her while the Dart Aphrodite was at her home in Los Angeles.

“I thought [the Dart Aphrodite] was an interesting piece so I did more research on it and eventually wrote an article on the head,” said Pollini, who is now a professor of classical art and archeology in the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.

Pollini published his article 15 years ago, and when Dart passed away in April 2009, her son Stephen got in touch with Pollini and decided to donate the artwork to USC.

“I had met Stephen earlier when I met Jane as I first saw the piece,” Pollini said. “He remembered me and my article and decided to donate the Dart Aphrodite to USC.”

The sculpture was donated to USC’s archeology lab, where it arrived in late November for examination. Robinson said that although the archeology lab officially owns the piece, it is on permanent loan to the Campus Center.

“We don’t have any kind of date set for when the piece might be removed,” Robinson said. “If it were to be removed, it would be in a very long time and it would have to be for extenuating circumstances.”

After being examined at USC, the piece was sent to a shop in Pasadena for a custom-made glass installation case. Because of the specific style and weight of the sculpture, the installation piece includes a special mount that goes into a hole at the bottom of the neck.

Pollini said that since the university does not currently have any other major pieces of ancient Greek or Roman art, the acquisition of the Dart Aphrodite is important to the USC community.

“This is literally something you would possibly study in an art history or archeology-minded class, so the fact that we’re going to have it on campus and see it in person is going to be infinitely more valuable than studying it in a book,” Robinson said. “It really makes being able to study it in this context priceless.”

Aphrodite Image Upsets Some - Diplomats!

Oh for goddess' sake - this political correctness stuff is getting ridiculous.  You can be sure that Muslims and anyone else who might be "offended" by a passport that contains an image of a priceless work of art aren't concerned, in their turn, about offending westerners with their views, practices and beliefs.

From Reuters as reported at Yahoo News
Goddess of Love emerges into foaming Cypriot row
– Thu Dec 23, 6:13 am ET


This lovely Aphrodite is called the
Aphrodite of Rhodes and is housed
in the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes.
She is depicted as wringing the sea water
out of her hair on the beach after her
birth from the foam of the waves.

 NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) – She may be the ancient Greek Goddess of Love, but a picture of a nude Aphrodite on the new passport of Cyprus has set more than hearts racing.

Cypriot diplomats are furious with the interior ministry for failing to consult with the foreign ministry before issuing passports with a depiction of a naked immortal that might offend conservative foreign cultures.

"They are worried that civilians and diplomats could get into trouble, particularly traveling to very conservative Islamic countries," the authoritative Phileleftheros daily newspaper wrote on Thursday.

The interior ministry said it was too late to change them, the newspaper said.

Local legend says Aphrodite (also known as Venus to the ancient Romans) emerged from the sea on a crest of foam just off the Mediterranean island.

The image on the new biometric passports is modeled on a Greek marble statue of a completely naked Aphrodite in the Cyprus Museum located in the capital Nicosia.

(Writing by Michele Kambas, editing by Paul Casciato)

Hidden Goddess Figurines Discovered

(Image: from original article at Live Science) Ancient Aphrodite Figures Hint at Pagan Resistance Excerpted from a Live Science story at Yahoo News Mon Sep 14, 2:07 pm ET Three figurines of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, have been found buried underground in the remains of a shop in a Roman city built in the second century B.C. The hidden figures hint at the reluctance of some denizens of the Roman Empire to give up their pagan beliefs despite the spread of Christianity. The ancient treasure, buried for more than 1,500 years, was uncovered during the tenth season of excavations that are being carried out by researchers of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. The hidden statues were discovered when the researchers exposed a shop in the southeastern corner of the forum district of Sussita, which is the central area of the mountaintop Roman city that existed through the Roman and Byzantine periods and destroyed in the great earthquake of 749 A.D. Sussita, also known as Hippos, is located in Israel and sits on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The city was originally built by Greek colonists, but later came under Roman rule. The researchers say it was clear the followers had wished to hide the figurines, as they were found complete. "It is possible that during the fourth century A.D., when Christianity was gradually becoming the governing religion in the Roman Empire, there were still a number of inhabitants in Sussita who remained loyal to the goddess of love and therefore wished to hide and preserve these items," said Arthur Segal, one of the excavation's leaders. The clay pieces are 9 inches (23 cm) tall and represent the common model of the goddess of love known to the experts as Venus pudica, "the modest Venus." This name was given to the form due to its upright stature and the figure's covering her private parts with the palm of her hand. (Venus is the Roman name for the goddess of love. The term 'aphrodisiac' comes from the Greek name of the goddess.

Fixing a Broken Goddess

From Emory University's online newspaper emorywheel.com: Carlos Fixes Broken Goddess By Kelsey Harper Posted: 04/27/2009 Just a few weeks ago, Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum opened its doors to a famous and historically significant statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. This particular statue is exceptional because it was part of a nudity revolution in ancient Western sculpture. Jasper Gaunt, the curator of the Greek and Roman Collections, explained in a Carlos Museum podcast, “This is really one of the first examples of the female nude in Western art ... which explores female sexuality in an open and joyful way.” According to Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman historian, the predecessor to this statue was created by renowned sculptor Praxiteles, who had been commissioned by the citizens of the Greek island of Kos to make a statue of Aphrodite. The nearby city of Knidos purchased the nude Aphrodite without any qualms, causing such a stir that people traveled from all over ancient Greece to see the famed statue. Gaunt noted in the podcast that “she became the most famous statue of the ancient world, and people went on pilgrimages to see it.” The statue at the Carlos Museum, dating to the first century B.C., is more than an early adaptation of the Knidos original; it is a fellow contributor to the critical turning point in which female nudity in sculpture began to be embraced. This significant work of art found its way to Emory after a long and dangerous journey. In fact, the Aphrodite arrived at Emory in two pieces. Some time after World War II, the statue was shipped to New York. While it was in transit, the head fell off, probably weakened from previous repairs. Upon arrival at New York, an antiquarian erroneously determined that the head and body did not belong to each other, and they were sold separately. In 2006, the mistake was caught thanks to a very astute Sotheby’s employee, who recognized it as the same Aphrodite he had seen in an engraving from Paris. The owner of the head was contacted and he kindly agreed to sell the head to whoever purchased the body. Hearing of the incredible opportunity to purchase such a pivotal work of art, Gaunt attended the bidding and walked away with a fantastic addition to the Carlos Museum. The new acquisition was not yet intact, however, and the daunting task of reconstructing the ancient masterpiece was left to the museum’s conservator, Renee Stein. Stein discussed the repairs in the aforementioned podcast, stating that the head and body not only had to be reattached, but also partially reconstructed. “I was surprised because you couldn’t tell it was put together,” senior Stephanie Chen said. “You couldn’t see a seam ... and it looked proportional.” Indeed, the statue does look natural, elegant and whole, but the complex story of its damage, separation and reunion arouses curiosity and interest. “Aphrodite is a beautiful and significant addition to the Carlos collections, but we find people also come to see her because she has had such an adventure getting here,” said Julie Green, manager of school programs at the Carlos Museum. “I have seen school children, when they hear the story, circling the piece like young conservators, looking for ancient or modern repairs. It is great to see the public so charged up in looking closely at a beautiful object.”

Central Park Blessings of Marriages

This sounds like a lot of fun! Blessing of the Brides and Grooms This Saturday in Central Park, June 14 From Wedlok.com Join us for our annual Wedding Goddess Blessing of the Brides and Grooms in Central Park on June 14, 2008, at 4 PM. This is the only event of its kind for engaged couples in New York City. Brides and their grooms, of all faiths and backgrounds, join us each year in one of the most sacred parts of Central Park. The blessing is in a place blessed by the hundreds of weddings that are held their each year. Space is limited so you must RSVP to let us know you want to attend, and for location information. The Blessing of the Brides and Grooms is a ceremony before your ceremony, to help you feel more relaxed, centered and confident …show you how to visualize your wedding going your way … and empower you to be present and there for one another on your big day! It is a blessing meant to help give your marriage the best possible start. The Blessing of the Brides and Grooms is offered by husband and wife officiants, Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway and Rev. Vic Fuhrman. Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway is a leading interfaith and non-denominational wedding officiant. She creates unique ceremonies for couples of all backgrounds and faiths, and is also widely recognized as a bridal stress expert. She is editor of Wedlok.com and author of Wedding Goddess and Your Perfect Wedding Vows. Rev. Victor Fuhrman is an ordained Interfaith Minister. He was officiant for “The Knot Presents My Celebrity Wedding” in 2007. He has been a Reiki Master Teacher since 1996 and heals with both his touch and his voice. He’s a meditation expert for Beliefnet.com and co- author of Pet Prayers and Blessings. [Oh, well, that makes him a real expert on marriage, then...] Our wish for all brides and grooms is that your journey to the altar be blessed! And that their marriages have the best start ever. This blessing is our gift to you each year! PLEASE RSVP to Rev. Laurie Sue ASAP!

* * * * * *

So, who is this unnamed "Wedding Goddess?" It's none other than the Goddess Aphrodite-Mari, from which the Latin word maritare (union under the auspices of the Goddes Aphrodite-Mari occurred).

Womb - That from Which We Come, That to Which We Go

From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Legend." Womb The Sanskrit word for any temple or sancutary was garbha-grha, "womb."(1) The great annual festival of Aphrodite in argos was called Hysteria, "Womb."(2) The oldest oracle in Greece, sacred to the Great Mother of eart, sea, and sky, ws named Delphi, from delphos, "womb." Megalithic tombs and barrow-mounds were designed as "wombs" to give rebirth to the dead. [New Grange, for instance.] Their vaginal entrance passages show that Neolithic folk went to considerable trouble to devise imitations of female anatomy in earth and stone. tomb and womb were even related linguistacally. Greek tumbos, Latin tumulus were cognates of tumere, to swell, to be pregnant. The word "tummy" is thought to have come from the same root.(3) Womb-temples and womb-tombs point backward to the matriarchal age, when only feminine life-magic was thought efficacious. Rebirth from the womb-tomb was the meaning of the domed funerary stupa of the Far East, where the remains of the sainted dead lay within a structure called garbha, the "womb."(4) The parallel with barrow graves, Mycenaean tholos tombs, cave temples, and other such structures is now well known. Even a Christian cathedral centered on the space called nave, originally meaning "belly." [hence "belly button" - navel]. Caves and burial chambers were said to be sunk in the "bowels" of the earth - that is, of Mother Earth. The biblical term for "birth" is "separation from the bowels." Archetypal womb-symbolism is as common today as it ever was, though not always rcognized as such. Paul Klee said, "Which artist would not wish to dwell at the central organ of all motion . . . from which all functions derive their life? In the womb of nature, in the primal ground of creation, where the secret key to all things lies hidden?"(5) Notes: (1) Campbell, C.M., 168. (2) H. Smith, 126. (3) Potter & Sargent, 28. (4) Waddell, 262. (5) Jung, M.H.S., 263. **************************************************************************************** I was rather curious about this festival of Hysteria, so I did a little research. At this website, I found this statement: As a matter of fact Kallimakhos (or Zenodotos), in Historical Notes, testifies that the pig is sacrificed to Aphrodite: "The people of Argos sacrifice swine to Aphrodite and the festival is called Hysteria (Feast of Swine)." - Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3.95f-96a "Feast of Swine" certainly doesn't sound anything like "(Feast of the) Womb" - but, curiously, that same web site said that pigs were called hus in Greek. "Hus" as in "husband?" VI) SWINE (Greek "hus") Aphrodite had a curious relationship with the pig. The goddess supposedly hated the creature because her lover Adonis had been gored to death by a wild boar. Therefore arose the proverb 'he sacrificed a pig to Aphrodite' used to refer to someone who gave an innappropriate or unwanted gift. However, in Argos and Kypros at least, pigs were sacrificed to the goddess during the Hysteria (of the pigs) festival. The sacrifice was probably to assuage her grief for the loss of Adonis, who was slain by a wild pig. In other cultures, we know the white sow was sacred as an aspect of the Goddess. According to Barbara Walker, "The white corpse-eating Sow-goddess represented the death aspect of the Great Mother in cults of Astarte, Demeter, the Celts' Cerridwen, and the Teutons' Frya. As a death goddess, Freya had the title of Syr, "Sow." Demeter-Persephone or "Demeter the Destroyer" was sometimes called Phorcis the Sow, mother of the Phorcids or Fatal Women [from which we derive the word "porcine"]. One of these was Circe, swine-goddess of Aeaea, who could turn men into sacrificial pigs. Her island Aeaea meant literally "Wailing," a reference to the ritual laments accompanying sacrifices of the god in pig form." Stringing this all together, perhaps Adonis' being gored to death by a wild boar was a later Greek gloss of his original sacrificial death as a sacred king/husband of the goddess Aphrodite. Instead of being killed by a "pig," he was, in actuality, sacrificed as a "pig" himself. Therefore, the connection of sacrificing pigs and the "Fatal Women" would make sense in the context of an "hysterical" celebration to the Goddess Aphrodite. The sacrificing of pigs at the Hysteria was a throw-back to pre-Greek goddess worship. Also from Walker: Hysteria "Womb," the orgiastic religious festival of Aphrodite in Argos, where the Womb of the World was adored and symbolically fructified.(1) [by offering sacrifice, in this case, pigs?] Hysteria was given its present meaning by renaissance doctors who explained women's diseases with a theory that the womb sometimes became detached from its place and wandered about inside the body, causing uncontrolled behavior. My good old Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has this to say about hyster- or hystero- comb form [French or Latin, French hyster-, from Latin hyster-, from Greek, from hystera] 1: womb. So, Walker was absolutely correct - the Hysteria at Argos was the Festival of the Womb. But what about "pig?" I did a quick search for an English-Greek dictionary and came up with these words: choiros, gourouni. However, I believe those are in modern Greek, which probably bears litle relation to ancient Greek. This may be closer - under my Webster's definition for swine is Latin sus - see more at Sow. Pay dirt! In my Webster's under the definition of "sow": Middle English sowe, from Old English sugu; akin to Old English and Old High German su sow, Latin sus pig, swine, hog, Greek hys [emphasis added]. 1: an adult female swine. So, hys means sow in Greek; and hystera means womb in Greek. A rather interesting connection. A few interesting tid-bits: Sows killed at Yuletide - possibly traced to worship of Freya. Animal worship in Ireland - scroll about half way down to find extensive entry under Pig. Lots of intesting information here on Pig, Sow and Boar.

Goodbye, Mighty Aphrodite

A paeon to a mighty Goddess who will soon be travelling back home to Italy.

Aphrodite's mighty appeal
Whether she resides in Italy or on the California coast, the statue of Aphrodite will always exude power and charm.

By Janie Dempsey Watts
from the August 16, 2007 edition

Everyone needs a friend who is larger than life; the strong, silent type who is a good listener. And if she happens to be much older and has a sketchy past, so much the better. In Malibu, Calif., I found just such a friend who is always there for me, at least for the moment.

My friend Aphrodite arrived in California in the late '80s to make her home at the Getty Museum. I first encountered her ringed by admirers who gazed at the strong lines of her 7-1/2-foot frame. She stood on her pedestal, proud and sure of herself, holding court. Being in the limelight was easy for her since she had spent a number of years underground.

The 2,400-year-old Aphrodite was brought to the Getty to be the centerpiece of its antiquities collection. The museum paid $18 million for her. And to think, she has a chipped nose and is bald – although she probably originally had hair and a veil.

Over the past two decades, I have visited her more than a dozen times, awed every time by her immense size. Her voluptuousness is stunning and quite reassuring. It's nice to know that plus-size women were valued at some point in history, and, in her case, she was known as the most beautiful goddess – goddess of love and queen of the heavens.

In fact, the information placard says her size is what makes her a goddess. If big equals good, does that make me and my fellow size-14 women goddesses, too? I would like to think so.

What I like best is that she looks strong. Being that powerful, I imagine she didn't have to put up with too many antics from her husbands and lovers.

Being married to that ugly Hephaestus, the god of fire, must have been difficult for someone so lovely, but she never complained. If I could get her to talk, I'd offer her a shoulder to cry on – although she might crush me in the process.

The placard placed near her base says that the wind-blown garments clinging to her body are characteristic of Aphrodite, goddess of love.
But I know the truth: The real reason she's dressed in a loose toga is to downplay those thunderous thighs. The woman is smart – she knows she wouldn't look good in a miniskirt.

She's a hardheaded woman. Marble, to be precise. Her head looks a little small for her limestone body. Some have speculated her current head might not be her head at all. She could be a composite of two ancient artworks.

Whatever the case, having a head that is, well, completely different from your body is tough. Talk about feeling disconnected.

And as if this head thing weren't enough, her origins are in question. She could be from north Africa or Sicily. Sicily is more likely, since the limestone she's made of is of the Sicilian type, according to the geologists at the University of Palermo in Italy. Experts at the Getty also believe that the limestone is closest to the Sicilian variety.

I don't know why anyone had to consult the scientists to figure out she is Sicilian. All they had to do was ask me.

After 25 years around a Sicilian mother-in-law, I can assure you Aphrodite is a Sicilian girl. She's larger than life and exudes power from every square inch of her body and face. One look at those serious eyes, and you know not to mess with her.

Need more proof that she's Sicilian? Take a look at her outstretched arm and open hand. It's obvious the woman is begging for a snack. It could have been a golden apple or a pomegranate that she wanted, but I'm sure it was a large slice of pizza.

For the moment, she seems comfortable at the Getty Villa in Malibu. But she will soon be moving home because Italy wants her back.

Italy, Malibu, either will work as long as the big girl stays near the sea. After all, she was born of the sea and had many temples built by the sea, so she probably feels most at home by the coast, surrounded by admirers.

I have to admit I'm a little envious of my friend Aphrodite. To be mostly bald, plus size, oh-so-old, and to have so many folks fighting over you – now that's heaven.

*************************************************************************************

Amen.