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What Was the Venus de Milo Doing with Her Arms?
- cortesoft 11y agoHow is her spinning thread a 'provocative' theory?
- seszett 11y agoPresumably, because that was the occupation of prostitutes.
- return0 11y agoIsn't that a nonsensical theory too? Why would a godess who was also married work as a prostitute?
- coldtea 11y agoShe was goddess of love (in the sexual aspect of it) -- including having TONS of extra-marital affairs in the mythology. And it's not about what she would really do as an occupation in order to make a buck, as if she was an actual person! It's about the connection in people's minds that the goddess-of-(making)-love is also a kind of "patron saint" of prostitution, and perhaps the artist wanted to play with that image (if the theory in TFA holds). Also have to know that prostitution itself wasn't a dirty, destitute, "crack-whore" style affair at the time, but something seen as a service to society, with some prostitutes more like columbines and geishas. Heck, they also had a kind of prostitution in the temples, as a sacred thing.
- tcfunk 11y agoBecause Templars.
- Crito 11y agoIsn't prostitution the occupation of prostitutes?
- pcardh0 11y agoPleasuring Jupiter.
- gweinberg 11y agoI like the Spinal Tap answer. She was shooting up. Intravenous de Milo.
- simonebrunozzi 11y agoYou either say "the Venus of Milo" (English), or you say "Venere di Milo" (Italian). "De" is Spanish and has nothing to do with its name.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- matthewowen 11y agoThis makes no sense. I assume the name is probably French, because it was discovered by a French archaeologist. I think it could also be Latin, since I think "Milo" would be the dative case of "Milos", but I'm not 100% sure (I haven't read much Latin since leaving university). In either case, Spanish has nothing to do with the matter, the name is perfectly valid, and more generally "Venus de Milo" is the canonical name. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but there's no way in which it is is less valid than using an Italian name in English conversation. Also, you probably wouldn't say "Venus of Milo", because that's a really awkward way to refer to the geographical origin of something in English.
- existencebox 11y agoIt is also latin, happening to mean "concerning" "of" or "about", which in this context seems appropriate. (I'm only mildly a latin type, not an art historian, so I'm not sure this is in fact the intended meaning, but it fits, and given the statues classical (albeit greek) history...) Edit: As sister posts point out, the french meaning is far more appropriate, but the latin is valid as a root.
- bane 11y agoNo you don't and it's a Greek statue. The English name it's known by is "Aphrodite of Milos" but almost nobody uses that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/aphrodite-known-venus-de-milo http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/aphrodite-known-venus... http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/venus/venusdemilo.html http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/mis... http://www.venusdemilo.gr/ http://www.venusdemilo.gr/ http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-aphrodite-milos-better-known-venus-de-milo-314986 http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-aphrodite-milos-bett...
- Eleutheria 11y agoI'd like to know about the Winged Victory of Samothrace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace
- ubasu 11y agoAccording to the Wikipedia entry [1] and other pages mentioned in another comment [2], the statue was found with a fragment of a left hand holding an apple, and a right hand with a draped sash. This was taken to understand that the statue represented the Judgement of Paris [3]. So apparently it is known what the hands held, which seems to make this speculation unnecessary. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474238 [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- bovermyer 11y agoUntil we discover time travel, learn to understand alien cultures, and universally mesh with the minds of artists, we'll never really know what the Venus statue was intended to be. Which is not to say that this scenario is impossible. Just that we are not there yet.