|
|
|
E-mail to a Friend
Printer Friendly
About
170 years ago, a rare, well-preserved
marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite lost her head. Rumor has
it that this goddess of love and beauty finally was caught by her
husband, Hephaestus, in another of her endless love trysts. Being
unhappy with his unfaithful wife, he exclaimed, “So you want
to act like an air-head? Fine! Now you will look like one!”
At which point he knocked her block off. Undeterred, Aphrodite reportedly
decided that being simply necked was fine and continued in her amorous
pursuits.
It was not known what had become of
Aphrodite’s head until this summer when the rest of Aphrodite
came to Sotheby’s auction in New York, appearing modest and
contrite and seeking a sponsor for a try at rehabilitation. Jasper
Gaunt, curator of Greek and Roman Art at Emory’s Carlos Museum,
clearly sympathetic to the goddess’s plight, placed the highest
bid. Aphrodite was so pleased for the opportunity to come to Emory
that she was speechless. And although she desperately wanted to
embrace the man who had put such faith in her, she showed rock-solid
restraint.
Clearly, as a signal from the gods,
a private party (who wished to remain anonymous but who is rumored
to be associated with her guilt-ridden husband) came forward and
offered to return Aphrodite’s head so that it might be reunited
with her body, the better to pursue her newfound love of learning.
Specialists at the Carlos Museum are
ready to undertake the work of reuniting Aphrodite with her head.
Also standing at the ready is Michael Johns, CEO of the Woodruff
Health Sciences Center and renowned head and neck surgeon. “While
reattachment of a head and neck has never been tried before,”
he says, “as one of the few people on campus actually licensed
to cut throats, I would love to lend a hand.”
The most beautiful Capitoline Aphrodite
in the United States and one of the loveliest of this type in the
world is looking forward to having her head screwed on right for
the first time in possibly 170 years. The Emory community expects
that she will love it here.
For more
info, visit: www.carlos.emory.edu. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|