On our way back to Sicily, before taking the ferryboat, we visited the Museum of Reggio Calabria, which houses finds from Hellenistic period and, in particular, the Riace Bronzes.
They are two big bronze sculptures, dating back to the fifth century BC, that were found in the sea of Riace Marina, in 1972. Their perfect bodies embody the “harmony of forms” so dear to the Greeks.
For the Greeks, beauty was “the smile of the earth”. While building a temple or making a sculpture, they had in mind the idea of “harmony of forms”. It was not possible to find a Greek sculpture that was not beautiful.
Aphrodite was the ideal of female beauty as Heracles was the ideal of male beauty. Everybody, both gods and humans, fell in love with Aphrodite. But, all rules have their exceptions!
Aphrodite (the goddess of beauty) was jealous of Psyche (the goddess of the soul). Sometimes, Psyche outshone Aphrodite, for some fell in love with Psyche. They preferred the beauty of the soul to that of the body.
Do you think the same happens nowadays?
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily (English version)
– A Hidden Sicilian History (English version)
– The Vibrations of Words(English version)
– Travels of the Mind (English version)
– Una Storia Siciliana Nascosta (versione in lingua italiana)
Ettore Grillo's Blog 