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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.
ProvenanceAcquired 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.
FootnotesThe 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’.
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Bracelets were worn in Rome by ladies of rank, but it was considered a mark of effeminacy for civilian men to use such female ornaments (Suetonius, Caligula, 52; Nero, 30). The armillae (or psellia in Greek) were rings and bracelets worn by women in the Graeco-Roman world on both legs and arms. Homer mentions them (elikas) as being part of the hairstyle of the divine Aphrodite, thus giving an almost sacred character to these objects. There were different types, the most common consisting of a more or less thick metal wire, or a flat or cylindrical circle, like our examples. -
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