In search of the statuary type of Aphrodite Sosandra

Abstract

This paper deals with the original of the statuary type known as Aspasia or Europa. It is here recognized as Aphrodite Sosandra, a view that is gaining ground in modern scholarship. It is argued that the bronze statue of Aphrodite by Ka la mis which was dedicated by Kallias on the Athenian Acropolis in the midfifth century B.C. carried political symbolism. This study sheds further light on the specific iconography of this statue of the goddess and its impact, as well as on her cult in Athens. Last, but not least, it underlines the discovery of the cult name Venus Sosandra in a likely Athenian context in south Italy, which settles the question whether there were two different statues by Ka la mis on the Athenian Acropolis, one being the Aphrodite erected by Kallias and seen by Pausanias and the other the Sosandra mentioned by Lucian.