Aphrodite Venus Callipyge, the ‘Indecent Aphrodite’, at the Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy

Aphrodite Venus Callipyge, the ‘Aphrodite with the Beautiful Buttocks’, Farnese Collection

Aphrodite Callipyge Sculpture – Marble (160 cm) Mid-2nd century

This depiction of Aphrodite not only highlights the goddess’s beauty, but also her status as the goddess of love by ostentatiously lifting her chiton, thereby revealing her buttocks and genitals in a clearly erotic gesture.

Her invitation to love could not be more explicit.

Aphrodite’s breast is already exposed, her chiton having slipped low enough to reveal it to us, whilst she arches her back and gazes at her bare buttocks, inviting us to follow her gaze and admire them.

Aphrodite also holds her garment open with her right hand, thus revealing her naked body from her feet up to her waist.

Aphrodite Callipyge All of this was performed in a graceful and entirely natural gesture, without any apparent shame.

The aesthetic and eroticism of this act of baring oneself was known as Anasyrma in ancient Greece.

Anasyrma referred to the act of revealing one’s buttocks or genitals by lifting or parting one’s robe.

This Aphrodite Callipyge from the Farnese collection performs this Anasyrma movement in its entirety, thus revealing her genitals, her breast and her buttocks.

Aphrodite, arching her back, leaning backwards and looking behind her, admires herself in the reflection of the water.

The name Callipyge, from the Greek Kallipygos, given to this sculpture means “She who has a beautiful bottom”.

One can only agree!

Aphrodite Callipyge