Antiquities Exhibits

While looking through my images of artifacts in the British Museum this morning, I came across this terracotta figurine from Boeotia dated to around 400 BCE.  It is identified as merely a youth crowned with a wreath holding a puppy while another dog stands beside him.  As I studied the image, though, I wondered about the identification of it as just a youth.  The broad hips and thighs are reflective of a female form although it is clearly male.  I wondered if it may be a type of Aphroditus statue.  The deity is thought to have arrived in Athens from Cyprus in the 4th century BCE although there have been some Aphroditus herms dated to the 5th century BCE.  Aphroditus was later renamed  Hermaphroditos to reflect its parentage from Aphrodite and Hermes. The deity makes an appearance in the work, On Moral Characters, penned by Theophrastus.  A native of the island of Lesbos, Theophrastus succeeded Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His given name wa...

In my work on the translation of Hauser in Pompeji, I discovered that a female-headed herm with a phallus was found in one of the cubiculum of the House of the Prince of Naples. I found this particularly interesting as I have seen a number of herms in various museums around the world but not one like that. I did a little more research and found that herms featuring the male-female god Aphroditus were produced in the 5th century BCE on Cyprus. The worship of Aphroditus sprea d to Athens in the 4th century BCE then subsequently to Rome. Surviving Roman statues of Aphroditus have been dated as late as the 3rd century CE. Anyway, this prelude brings us to today's featured "Antiquities Alive" artifact: Herm of Aphroditus, Greek, at the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. This male-female god was associated with the Moon and according to Macrobius, at its sacrifices men and women exchanged clothing. Philostratus described the rituals, saying the image or the impersonator...