Why is it that most Greek and Roman statues of naked men have survived almost intact but have their penises missing? Were they wacked off (no pun intended) by later religious zelots or Victorian prudes or was it an inheritantly weak point of the artwork?
Why is it that most Greek and Roman statues of naked men have survived almost intact but have their penises missing? Were they whacked off (no pun intended) by later religious zealots or Victorian prudes or was it an inheritantly weak point of the artwork
So far I've received quite a few interesting answers to this question. I was looking up Apollo on Wikipedia and there was a picture of a I believe Roman marble statue that was flawless in every detail except you know what was missing. I think that it is the opinion of most, so far, is that the damage was done by religious zealots. Although time and neglect has certainly contributed to damage on some ancient statues, the lack of any other damage at all seems to confirm this