How Does the Venus de Milo Work?

to her arms? The half draped, armless marble statue of a goddess that many of us know as the Venus de Milo likely represents one of two figures who aren't technically Venus, the Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty and fertility, but rather either Aphrodite, Venus's Greek counterpart, or Amphride, the

goddess queen of the Sea and wife of Poseidon. But when the statue was discovered in eighteen twenty on the Greek island of Milos and presented to Louis, who in turn donated her to the Louver, no one was quite sure what to make of her. For the article this episode is based on has to work spoke via email with Andrew Stewart Nicholas C. Petris, Professor of Greek Studies

Emeritus at UC Berkeley. He said, when the Louve acquired the statue in eighteen twenty, the British Museum had just acquired the Elgin Marbles, universally attributed to the fifth century BC sculptor Phideous, generally acknowledged by ancients and moderns as

the greatest of Greek sculptors. Since she was obviously later stylistically but still classical, she was immediately attributed to Praxilites, the greatest fourth century BC sculptor and universally acknowledged master of the female nude epitomized by the love goddess Aphrodite. A base found with her signed by the sculptor Alexandro's of Magnesia on the Meander, a city not founded until the third century b c. E was thus immediately and

conveniently lost. According to Stuart, a German archaeologist is credited with discovering Venus de Biolo's true root as a Greek neo classical statue, not a classical one, but the revelation didn't come until the late nineteenth century. When he realized that her drapery was clearly Hellenistic and probably created in the second century BC. Despite her real identity, the statue

is still often tied to an older era. Stewart said she still is regarded as a masterpiece of the classical genre, partly because we have so few originals of her size, state of preservation and quality. If you've never seen her in person, you may not know how much larger than life she really is. The Venus de Milo stands some six ft eight inches tall that's about two hundred and four centimeters. Some details of her original appearance are known.

For one thing, she originally wore metal jewelry, including a bracelet, earrings, and headband. Since there are fixation holes remaining in the appropriate locations on the statue, the marble that she's carved from may have been embellished with painting, gilding, silvering, or other coloration that's since faded or fallen away. And at some point she did in fact have arms, but they were never found. Stewart said, the right arm is broken away,

its hand originally grasped the top of her drapery. The bust legs, left arm, foot base, and herm socketed into the base, were carved separately and doweled on with iron dowels set and lead, a common technique. A herm, by the way, is a square pillar that's topped with a carved statue of a god's head, often hermes, hence the name.

Stewart said that at the end of Antiquity, a time period that signifies the transition from the Greco Roman period to the Middle Ages, someone removed Venus's limbs in order to take the metal dowels and recycle them. Quote. The best bet, in my opinion, is that she held an apple in her outstretched left hand, which would have rested on the herm. Such an arm was found in a nearby niche and is represented in a nineteenth century drawing

in the louver. The apple would be both her personal accessory or attribute her toke and prize at the Judgment of Paris, and a pun on the name of the island, since the Greek for apple is Milan and apple's feature prominently on Hellenistic million coins. The Judgment of Paris is a Greek myth that's central to Venus de Milo's many symbolic ties. It describes a contest between three goddesses Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena for the prize of a golden apple addressed

to the fairest. Stewart wrote all about this in his book Art in the Hellenistic World. An introduction quote from that book dedicated to the gods of the Gymnasium in which she was found. She would have symbolized the ties of affection that united the Melians who exercised there. Moreover, Greeks had long understood the judgment of Paris as symbolizing a man's three principal life choices, war Athena of politics,

Hera or love Aphrodite. Stewart says that because they were at the time largely engaged in Warren politics, that third category, love of marriage and home life, were attractive or aspirational. He said that Venus's multidimensional appeal quote would have created the sense of an in group among the Gymnasians clientele, satisfying at one stroke the demands of local piety and this culture's overriding desire to connect. But this is just

one theory how stuff works. Also spoke with Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Linguistics at Occidental College and author of Women's Work the First twenty thousand years Women, Cloth and society in early times, She thinks Venus's missing arms were very much engaged in a different and meaningful

domestic activity. She said, while studying the origin and development of textiles in the Eastern Hemisphere, I found copious evidence that women were always doing most are all of the textile related work. The Venus de Milo is an exactly the position used at that time and place for spinning bread, the part of the job that took the most time,

so women were spinning every moment they could find. Barbara says that although the statue's arms are long gone, the musculature sculpted in her shoulders and upper back suggests that they were raised in just the position required for spinning, and her eyes are focused on the exact spot one

would have to watch as they spun, she said. Also, Aphrodite a k A. Venus was viewed by the Greeks as the goddess of spinning as well as of procreation, but the two are closely linked, both by the umbilical cord attached to the new baby and by the fact that in both spinning and baby making you start with a formless blob and create something remarkable out of it, seemingly by magic. Whatever the case, we can all agree that the Venus de Milo is one of the most

enduringly fascinating, albeit puzzling products of the Hellenistic period. Today's episode is based on the article Venus de Milo the most famous arm a statue in the world on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Michell Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. Or more podcasts. For my heart radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.