April 8 - Armless Beauty...

nPosted on April 8, 2020

Key Points

nHere’s one account of an important discovery:

nOn this date in 1820, a Greek peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas was exploring the ruins of the ancient city of Milos. Digging around, he spotted something intriguing, and he ended up discovering a niche that had been buried…

n…and inside that niche, in several pieces, was an ancient statue.

nIt ended up being one of the most famous ancient statues in the world. Called by modern folks Venus de Milo, the statue is on display at one of the most important art museums in the world: the Louvre, in Paris, France.

Milos is one of the Greek islands.

nVenus de Milo was carved around 130 to 100 BCE (Before Common Era), probably by the sculptor Alexandros of Antioch. The “de Milo” part of the statue’s name means “of Milos,” identifying the island and city where the statue was found. The “Venus” part of the name reflects our guess that the statue is supposed to represent Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The Roman name for Aphrodite is Venus!

nYou may have noticed that the statue is missing arms. It appears that the arms used to be there, but smaller stick-y-out-y parts of a statue often broke off after centuries and centuries, so many ancient statues are missing arms or noses or other parts.

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nBy the way, there are a few competing stories about exactly who discovered Venus de Milo (and exactly when and where). But the story I gave above is most widely accepted as true.