What Was the Venus de Milo Doing with Her Arms? | Hacker News Reader

What Was the Venus de Milo Doing with Her Arms?

slate.com

49 pointsshowwebgl21 comments

According 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 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474238 [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris

I'd like to know about the Winged Victory of Samothrace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace

I like the Spinal Tap answer. She was shooting up. Intravenous de Milo.

Until 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.

How is her spinning thread a 'provocative' theory?

Presumably, because that was the occupation of prostitutes.

Isn't that a nonsensical theory too? Why would a godess who was also married work as a prostitute?

She 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.

You probably mean "concubines".

Yeah.

Because Templars.

Isn't prostitution the occupation of prostitutes?

Pleasuring Jupiter.

You 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.

This 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.

It 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.

No 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

http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/aphrodite-known-venus...

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/mis...

http://www.venusdemilo.gr/

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-aphrodite-milos-bett...

"De" is also French, and I'm guessing it's the word they use on the sign in front of the statue...

"De" is also French, the language of the place where this Venus is, and "Venus de Milo" is simply the most common name used in English for referring to it.

If you really have to be pedantic, say the Aphrodite of Milos, since this is a Greek statue.

The common name of this statue (Aphrodite of Milos) is Venus de Milo.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/mis...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo

http://www.milos-island.gr/venusdemilo.htm

I'm going to yield to France on this one: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vénus_de_Milo

Reply on news.ycombinator.com