Aphrodite taking her morning jog through the halls of the Met,

 

 

 

 

stops and turns around when she sees herself depicted in white marble. 

 

 

as below

 

 

Who, she wants to know, removed the glorious colours of this image of her? 

 

The colours which captured the eyes and held the minds of those who passed by or came to visit her? 

 

 

 

 

Aphrodite Anadyomene (rising), marble, late 2nd century BC; thought to be from Rhodes.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

What a desecration! she thinks. 

 

Did the colours of those of us who were once the Olympians drain away with our powers? she wonders.

 

No wonder, she thinks, that this little boy walked straight by this cold white marble to look at trinkets in the glass case beyond.

 

 

 

Bronze statuette of Aphrodite,  c.150–100 B.C (Variant of 4th century BC of  Aphrodite of  Knidos by Praxiteles); bronze. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY