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Marble Torso of Eros

Date late 4th century B.C.
Object type sculpture
Medium, technique carved, marble
Dimensions

height: 47.5 cm, width: 22 cm

Inventory number 4127
Collection Classical Antiquities
On view Museum of Fine Arts, Basement Floor, Classical Antiquity, Eros – Dionysos – Thanatos

The statue depicts the god with long hair and wings. He is nude, his chest crossed by the strap of the quiver hung over his shoulder. The piece belongs to a popular type that may have originated in one of Praxiteles’s famous statues. It represents the two-faced deity with light-hearted playfulness. Although Eros is a child, he is mightier than all the other deities: he can even make Zeus and Aphrodite fall in love, should he hit them with his arrow. The right hand of the statue held an arrow, the left a bow – Eros is about to pick his next victim.

Marble analyses have shown that the statue was made of Pentelic marble.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

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