Ancient statue of Greek God Eros unearthed in Italy
Do you know who Eros is? Yes, he is the Greek equivalent of Cupid and is the God of love and romantic passion. Now, as many as 2000 years old statue of the Greek God has been unearthed alongside other artefacts from an ancient Greek city site called Paestum that lies in the present-day southern Italy’s Amalfi coast. In fact, it first fell under the rule of Romans around 275 BC.
Archaeologists involved in the excavation revealed that the idol of Eros depicts him riding a dolphin. Alongside the statue, as many as seven of terracotta bull heads were also discovered.
Sources cite that the artefacts can be traced back to 5th century BC and are the first trove found from the prehistoric site.
For those curious, this ancient archaeological site has recently been on the map of its three massive Doric-columned temples that exhibits many popular structures from ancient Greece, including Parthenon in Athens. In fact, Paestum is located near the site of Pompeii in southern Italy’s Campania region. Interestingly, the small-sized temples were first discovered in the year 2019, but the full excavation project had come to a pause due to the pandemic, as reported by the Italian Culture Ministry. They have also stated that the brand-new findings will help archaeologists and historians find out more about the religious life of the ancient Greeks.
The bull heads that have been unearthed were seen placed around the altar of the temple in a statute of devotion. What is interesting here is that, while the bull heads did not surprise the finders, the statue of Eros certainly did as its presence was never in the documents earlier. You may also like to know that the Eros idol is said to belong to the family of ancient Greek ceramists called the Avilis.
As for now, archaeologists will keep digging the site as they are hoping to excavate more artefacts from the site, which was first traced in the 1950s.