Aphrodite Kallipygos

Aphrodite Kallipygos, Naples National Archaeological Museum

Aphrodite Kallipygos or Venus Kallipygos ( Greek : Καλλίπυγος ; with a beautiful buttocks or the gorgeous backside ) is an epithet of Aphrodite or Venus , which is used for statues and coins that represent them looking backwards. The motif was occasionally used on coins in both the late republic and the early imperial period.

Denarius of the almost naked Venus from behind, on denarius of Titus

According to book twelve of the Deipnosophistai of Athenaios , the name goes back to the story of two Sicilian girls from Syracuse . They argued which of them had the nicer ass. A young man passing by was asked to judge it as a referee . He chose the older one and married her, his brother married the younger of the two sisters. The girls, who had become rich through the marriages, then built a temple dedicated to Aphrodite in Syracuse. The statue up there looked over her shoulder and tried to see her bottom.

A well-known statue of this type can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples .

Individual evidence

^ Athenaios: Deipnosophistai , Book 12, page 554, paragraph 80
↑ Laura McClure: Courtesans at table. Gender and Greek literary culture in Athenaeus. Routledge, New York 2003, ISBN 0-415-93947-X , p. 123.

Web links

Commons : Aphrodite Kallipygos - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Athenaeus: The Deipnosophists , Book 12, pp. 544-554 (English translation of the Deipnosophistai)

[1] Athenaios: Deipnosophistai , Book 12, page 554, paragraph 80

[2] Laura McClure: Courtesans at table. Gender and Greek literary culture in Athenaeus. Routledge, New York 2003, ISBN 0-415-93947-X , p. 123.