LOT 0160

Roman Chalcedony Gemstone with Aphrodite Kallipygos

1ST CENTURY A.D.

1/2 in. (0.84 grams, 12 mm).

The goddess seen from behind, drapery around her legs, resting her left hand on a column and holding up an object in her right hand.

Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s.
Important North West London collection.

Cf. Walters, H.B., Catalogue of Engraved Gems & Cameos, Greek, Etruscan & Roman in the British Museum, London, 1926, no.3859.

The famous statue of Aphrodite Kallipygos, the model for this gemstone, recalls a story reported in the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus regarding the foundation of a temple to her in ancient Syracuse. According to Athenaeus, two beautiful sisters from a farm near Syracuse quarrelled over which of them had the most shapely buttocks, and approached a young passer-by to judge. They showed themselves to the traveller, the son of a rich man, and he voted for the older sister. Later, he fell in love with her and fell ill with lovesickness. Upon learning of what had happened, the man's younger brother went to see the girls and fell in love with the younger sister. Consequently the brothers refused to consider any other brides forcing the father to arrange for the sisters to come and marry them. The townspeople nicknamed the sisters ‘Kallipygoi’ (‘Women with Beautiful Behinds’) and the young men, with their newfound prosperity, dedicated a temple to Aphrodite, naming her ‘Kallipygos’.