APHRODITE WITH PAN AND EROS

Aphrodite with Pan and Eros, sculpted around 100 BC, is a very different work from the others, not in terms of technique or material, but in how the subjects are represented. This marble group includes three mythical creatures: Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Pan, a deity of the wild, half-man and half-goat, and Eros, the god of physical love and desire, represented as a winged boy.

Aphrodite is getting ready to bathe, and has even put her hair up in a band to keep them from getting wet. Pan suddenly approaches and starts annoying her, while Eros shoos him away, laughing as he takes him by the horn.

Pan has animal-like features, with a flat nose and pointed ears, and has the legs of a goat. His robust arm is taking hold of the goddess, trying to repulse the hand with which she is attempting – with scant conviction – to cover her nakedness. Rather than a goddess from Mount Olympus, this Aphrodite looks more like a beautiful and earthly woman: calm, relaxed and entirely unruffled by Pan’s clumsy intentions, rejecting his advances with a smile, threatening him light-heartedly with a sandal.

The artist’s intention was to playfully highlight the superior beauty of the youthful female body and the primitive sexual desire of the wild creature.