The Benghazi Venus (Aphrodite Anadyomene)

Celeberrimam eius Venerem exeuntem e mari dixi, quam Graeci ἀναδυομένην vocant, divo Augusto dicatam in delubro patris Caesaris. Quam Nero princeps in cubiculo suo posuerat alia pictura obiecta, exolescente prioris fulgore. Hanc tamen antecedebat eiusdem in Cypro altera, ubi similiter Venerem mari exeuntem divini capilli desudantes undam exprimerent, et superior quidem pars eius tabulae interierat, atque in ea facie eius quae superfuerat admiratio magna artis erat.

I have mentioned his most famous Venus emerging from the sea, called ‘Anadyomene’ by the Greeks, dedicated by the divine Augustus in the shrine of his father Caesar. The emperor Nero later placed it in his bedroom, its brilliance fading under another painting hung before it. Yet an earlier version of this by Apelles in Cyprus surpassed even that one, where the goddess’s divine hair, dripping seawater, seemed to press out the waves. The upper part of that panel had perished, yet in the surviving portion, the face inspired awe at the artist’s skill.

The Benghazi Venus is a Roman-era marble statue depicting Aphrodite Anadyomene (Ἀναδυόμενη, Venus Rising from the Sea), though it is unusually truncated at the upper thighs, possibly a deliberate artistic choice rather than damage. The goddess is portrayed fully nude, with both arms raised—each hand clutching a strand of her hair. The right hand is positioned near her eyes, while the left extends forward at shoulder level.

Venus Anadyomene is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny's Natural History, with the anecdote that the great Apelles employed Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great, for his model. According to Athenaeus, the idea of Aphrodite rising from the sea was inspired by the courtesan Phryne, who, during the time of the festivals of the Eleusinia and Poseidonia, often swam nude in the sea. A scallop shell, often found in Venus Anadyomenes, is a symbol of the female vulva.

According to Greek mythology, Aphrodite was born as an adult woman from the sea off Paphos in Cyprus, which also perpetually renewed her virginity. A motif of the goddess wringing out her hair is often repeated. The subject was often repeated in Antiquity, a fourth-century sculptural representation from a Gallo-Roman villa in Aquitania (Louvre) testifying to the motif's continued viability in Late Antiquity.

Apelles' painting was executed for the temple of Asclepius at Kos, from which it was taken to Rome by Augustus in part payment of tribute, and set up in the Temple of Caesar. In the time of Nero, owing to its dilapidated condition, it was replaced by a copy made by the painter Dorotheus. Pliny, listing Apelles' best paintings, noted "[Another of] Venus emerging from the sea, dedicated by the late Augustus of blessed memory in the shrine of Caesar his [adoptive-]father, which is called 'The Anadyomene', praised in Greek verses like other works, conquered by time but undimmed in fame."

The marble statue, though truncated at the thighs, preserves Apelles’ iconic pose: arms aloft, fingers coiled in damp tresses, the right hand grazing her temple as the left twists forward. Where Apelles used layered pigments to mimic seawater’s gloss on skin, the sculptor employed Parian marble’s crystalline sheen, polishing the surface to a liquid smoothness.