Rome - In ancient art, one of the more intriguing images of the goddess Aphrodite is a work of sculpture known by the imposing title of the Ludovisi Throne.  Scholars generally agree that the image depicts the birth of Aphrodite from the sea - the goddess of Love and Beauty is being helped to rise by a pair of females in silhouette.  If the relief does indeed represent the birth of Aphrodite (there are other possible interpretations), then we have an early scene of the goddess emerging into the world.

A point about the piece - the artist has skillfully rendered the diaphanous folds of the wet garment that is draped around Aphrodite.  This style of portraying sheer, wet fabric in relief will become quite popular in ancient Greek sculpture.  Particularly in statues of Aphrodite...

Although the Ludovisi Throne may be an early representation of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess continued to be an enormously compelling subject for artists.  Greek sculptors especially lavished attention on their images of Aphrodite.  The Greeks were followed closely by Roman artisans, who also delighted in portraying her in an array of beguiling scenes. 

But one of the most consistently intriguing aspects of the myth of Aphrodite was indeed her birth from the water.  Perhaps the most famous work based on this theme is Sandro Botticelli's lyrical Birth of Venus (remember that Venus is the Roman version of Aphrodite's name).  Created in the early Renaissance, this painting captures the goddess of Love so beautifully that is has become a model for artists through the centuries.

Original of marble found at the Villa Verosini in Rome where the ancient gardens of Sallust once were located.  Moved to the Villa Ludovisi, whence its name.

The main figure of the central panel is, according to some authors, Aphrodite (Venus) rising from the foam, that is, it represents the scene of her birth.  To others, however, the figure portrays Persephone on her annual return from the underworld.  The two women helping her to rise, according to the Aphrodite party, are standing on pebbles--therefore, this is a maritime scene.  The partisans of Persephone respond that this is obviously a dry land scene with a narrow pit from which no one else but Persephone could rise.  Dry or wet, Persephone or Aphrodite, the relief handles problems of foreshortening remarkably well and shows a good but still not perfect understanding of the rendering of folds during this transitional period (480-450 B.C).

The central figure raises some questions in this respect, but not so the subsidiary ones.  The face, which is rendered with noble simplicity, is not a portrait but has the typical generic character of the sober preclassical (or early classical or transitional) period.