English: Greek, Hellenistic

Statuette of Hermaphrodite, 2nd century B.C. White marble h. 149.1 cm., w. 27.5 cm., d. 13.2 cm. (58 11/16 x 10 13/16 x 5 3/16 in.) Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1922, Fund Place made: possibly from Rhodes 2009-81

In this statuette, said to have been found on Rhodes, the god is naked except for a mantle that falls below the male genitals, which stand in contrast to the girlish face and the feminine modeling of the body. Leaning against a pillar, she apparently once held a wine jug in her right hand and an offering dish in her left. The figure's lithe form and sweet sensuality are characteristic of the so-called Rococo phase of the Late Hellenistic period. Another larger example of this sculpture type was found at Pergamon, in western Turkey, a cosmopolitan center whose Attalid rulers fostered the cults of a variety of gods. These sculptures were not salacious curiosities but objects of sincere devotion, representing the dichotomy of human nature and the yearning for unity in the face of ambivalent desire.