Aphrodite Anadyomene Bronze Statuette in the Louvre, June 2014

Aphrodite was the object of a widespread cult in Egypt and Syria during the Roman period. Patron deity of women and marriage, she was portrayed as the Hellenised form of the indigenous deities Isis–Hathor and Astarte.
Certain marriage contracts found in Egypt and dating from the first centuries AD include among the list of parapherna (items distinct from the dowry that remained the wife’s personal property) a bronze, or occasionally silver, statuette of the goddess. The lararia placed in the home might also contain an effigy of Aphrodite.
Produced in local workshops, these figurines were usually based on famous statues of the goddess performing her ritual toilette. The same iconographic types can be found in terracotta.

Aphrodite “Anadyomene”
Roman period
Provenance: Syria?
Bronze
H. 25.2 cm

The statuette of Eros is probably modern.

In the 4th century BC, Apelles painted an Aphrodite rising from the sea and wringing the water from her hair (“Aphrodite Anadyomene”). The subject was also represented in sculpture. The group is probably modelled on a Hellenistic work.

De Clercq collection, Boisgelin gift, 1967
Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities
Br 4481


Text from: cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=10049&langue=en