"Psyche"

Soon after it was found this sculpture was identified as Psyche, meaning ‘soul’ in ancient Greek. It is now thought to represent Aphrodite and to take its inspiration, ultimately, from the Aphrodite of Knidos.

It dates from the first century BCE but is a Roman version of a Hellenistic original in the style of works attributed to the sculptor, Scopas

Number

351

Material

Marble

Location of Original

Naples, National Museum 269

Size

0.87m

Accession

Purchased in 1884 from the Paris Beaux Arts

References

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 336 (n.8)
Ruesch: Guide to the National Museum, Naples, 85-6, fig.30
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 93, no.504 (?)
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 894, no.520

Date

C1 BCE

Provenance

Found in the amphitheatre in Capua in the eighteenth century

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Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge

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