Sexy goddess bares all in Boston


The ancient goddess of love, sex, and beauty is making an appearance at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Aphrodite and the Gods of Love is a new exhibition examining one of the most popular ancient goddesses and her place in the Classical world. More than 150 ancient works of art are on display, including famous pieces such as the Knidia, a life-size sculpture of Aphrodite made by the 4th-century BC Greek artist, Praxiteles. Another interesting piece is the Sleeping Hermaphrodite, a reclining figure who from one side looks like a voluptuous woman, and from the other like a man.

The exhibition traces Aphrodite’s sexy origins in the Near East and the place of her cult in Greek and Roman society. Aphrodite was a Greek goddess who was adopted into the Roman pantheon as Venus. She was the symbol of romantic love and ideal beauty. She also oversaw marriage, an odd choice since many of the myths surrounding her involve her cheating on her husband, the blacksmith god Hephaistos (Vulcan). Men worshiped her because she aroused male virility.

Being in charge of such important aspects of life made Aphrodite extremely popular. She was the patron goddess of Pompeii. Interestingly, Ramsay MacMullen in his Paganism in the Roman Empire points out that altars in private homes in Pompeii were more often dedicated to Foruna, Vesta, and Bacchus than Aphrodite. Perhaps because love received so much public worship, people felt they needed to give good luck, the home, and drinking some attention. They can be related, after all!

McMullen’s book (which I highly recommend) also touches on various ways the Romans worshipped Venus, including picnicking in the orchards around her sanctuary in Cnidus, and wild processions where a woman playing Venus led a string of dancing children playing Cupid. She and the other deities were very much part of daily life.

The exhibition also looks at related figures of Classical mythology, such as Aphrodite’s sons Eros (Cupid), the well-endowed Priapus, and Hermaphrodite.

If you want to meet this lovely lady and her interesting offspring, you better hurry. Aphrodite and the Gods of Love is only on until February 20, 2012.

Top photo: Fresco of The Judgment of Paris, Roman, Imperial Period, 45–79 A.D. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. © www.pedicinimages.com. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Boston museum lets you spend ‘A Day in Pompeii’


Few sites in the world hold as much of a morbid fascination as does Pompeii, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pompeii is one of the most popular places in southern Italy for tourists, who come to view the city’s ruins and relics, in particular the preserved bodies of the victims whose last moments were captured in ash. This fall, visitors to Boston will get a chance to learn more about the ancient Roman town and see some of its artifacts thanks to the exhibit “A Day in Pompeii” at the Museum of Science.

Organized in conjunction with the Superintendent for Archeological Heritage of Naples and Pompeii, the exhibit will feature hundreds of relics from ancient Pompeii, ranging from earthenware and coins to jewelry and fragments of frescoes. The museum will also have live demonstrations explaining the science behind Mount Vesuvius’ most deadly eruption. And then, there are the plaster body casts of Vesuvius’ victims, which will undoubtedly be the star attractions of the exhibit. No fewer than 16 body casts will be on display, including a family of four, a man in shackles, a guard dog, and a pig.

“A Day in Pompeii” opens at the Museum of Science on October 2, 2011, and runs through February 12, 2012. Advanced tickets are highly recommended and you can purchase them from the Museum of Science’s online store.

Photo screen grab from the Museum of Science

Archaeologists explore “Pompeiis” in Bulgaria and El Salvador


Pompeii is an archaeological wonder, an entire Roman town preserved by a volcanic eruption. Now archaeologists are investigating two other “Pompeiis” to learn more about the past.

In El Salvador, a team has discovered a village dating to c. 630 AD that was covered in volcanic ash. Joya de Ceren was sealed up so well that archaeologists have been able to examine corn cobs, the logs used to build homes, and even the paths leading through the village and how crops were planted.

Archaeology is generally biased towards big sites, both because they’re easier to find and because it’s easier to get funding to excavate them. Finding a small village that was inhabited by only 100-200 commoners helps us understand how the other half lived. The village has been declared a World Heritage Site.

At the Roman city of Nikopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, an archaeological team is working on another “Pompeii”. This Roman city was never buried in a volcanic eruption but it’s so well preserved, scientists make the comparison anyway. An archaeological team is exploring a temple to Cybele, a mother goddess.

I’ve been to Nikopolis ad Istrum and was very impressed. The city was founded by the Emperor Trajan around 101-106 AD. It was a major center of trade and culture until Attila the Hun trashed it in 447 AD. So it goes. Attila wasn’t very thorough and the town soon flourished again under the Byzantines. Today you can walk the streets, see the foundations of many buildings and even spot some of their decoration. You can even trace the sewers, which are a lot less stinky than they used to be.

[Photo courtesy Klearchos Kapoutsis]

Photo of the Day- Deserted Pompeii

Pompeii is possibly the most famous excavation in the world, drawing 15,000 people every day, almost as many as lived there before the horrifying eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Naples, Italy is the place to be if you want to see the ruins of Pompeii, one of the best examples of a Roman town. It was the fourth stop on Gadling’s tour of the Mediterranean last month where we see 8 different places in 9 days, each for just one day

Flickr user Eric Bloemers (EricBloemersPhotography) added this photo to the Gadling group pool on Flickr. Do you have some photos from your travels that you would like to share? Upload it to the Gadling group pool on Flickr. If we like it we might just select it to be a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the Day- In the shadow of Vesuvius

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from Flickr user SummitVoice1 who tells us:

“We spent a couple of days in Napoli on our last European trip, wandering the ruins of Pompeii, where the stories of ancient Romans clutching their coins and jewelery while being engulfed by ash served as a reminder – you can’t take it with you. And I’ve always thought that the Napoli-style pizza, thick with anchovies and black olives, is the best.”

Do you have an image you would like to share with us? Upload it to the Flickr Gadling group pool. If we like your image we might just pick it to be a future Photo of the Day.