The anxious efforts of an impoverished and large farmer to gather stones to build a small wall in his field, brought to the surface again after about 1.900 years buried in the ground, one of the most beautiful statues ever carved in the world.
Milos Island, April 8, 1820. Just a few months before the Greek Revolution broke out against the Ottoman yoke, the unsuspecting land worker Georgios Kentrotas (or according to other sources Georgios Botonis) began digging under the sun, until his pickaxe , knocked on the roof of an underground dome. Curious, he crawled into the hole he had made and found himself in a small room. The spectacle he faces leaves him dazzled. On the floor of the room lay an all-white statue of Parian marble.
It depicted a beautiful topless girl. She had a headband in her hair (a form of tape, similar to the one that women still use today to hold their hair) from which hair is pulled back. Her two hands may have been absent and the complete welding of all the parts found was done later in France, yet even so the beauty was unparalleled. The illiterate farmer could not realize the value of his statue, but he did not know what to do with it. Thus, he considered it appropriate to talk about the discovery to his fellow villagers. This is where the adventure begins.
In those days, a few kilometers below, in the port of Adamas of Milos, the French warship "Estafet" was temporarily stranded due to bad weather. An officer named Olivier Boutier (who later resigned from his country's navy and sided with the Greeks during the Revolution of '21), heard about the new find and immediately went to see it.
Some argue that he may have been present when the statue was found, since according to the head of the Athens Ephorate of Antiquities Eleni Banou "the French had obtained permission to make excavations in the ruins of the theater of Milos, but also of the city in general." Boutier was the first to read the inscription at the base of the statue: "Aphrodite". Without a doubt he represented the ancient Greek mythological goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, pleasure and procreation. He then traced it on paper, as was customary at the time.
A few days later, a second French warship, the "Sevret", arrives on the island. The flag bearer Jules Dimon d'Erville, who sees the statue, is convinced that it is a depiction of the goddess Aphrodite holding in his hand the apple that according to mythology was given to her by Paris as a reward for her amazing beauty. The two Frenchmen are well aware of its value and leave immediately for Istanbul, in order to inform the French ambassador in its capital Of the Ottoman Empire.
The law of that time stipulated that all the antiquities that are discovered, end up in the Ottoman Gate and their fate is decided centrally. Of course, the truth is that for the Ottomans, the statues had no special value. Although the educational level in the Courtyard was high, the ancient monuments never became part of the Turkish culture and education.
However, the French consul in Milos, named Brest, tries to buy it before he even knows what the Ottomans would decide. But the secret has been leaked. Everyone is now trying to get the wonderful statue. "Unknown buyers from Athens send a priest - Vergis to pick it up and transport it to Piraeus. A monk from Milos, who had been accused of irregularities and had been summoned to the City (s.s. Istanbul) for an apology, thinks of taking it with him and giving it as a gift to the fleet interpreter to appease him (the fleet interpreter was one of the highest military ranks of the Ottoman Empire), while the French ambassador in Constantinople, as soon as he learns about the existence of the statue, begins the actions to buy it legally "as he states in his book" A drop of history, part two " (Patakis publications) the journalist and writer Dimitris Kampourakis.
The French consul Brest is finally the one who manages to get a ball from the High Gate to show it to the Turkish authorities of the island. He also has a letter of recommendation from Patriarch Gregory V to convince the Greeks. He does not go to the island himself, but sends his viceroy Marcelo, who arrives in the Cyclades on the ship "Estafet", May 20, 1820. Dumb, he finds the statue roughly packed on a boat from Spetses with an Ottoman flag, which is ready to leave for the City and from there to Moldova. The boat, however, never sailed with the cargo.
The tormented farmer George Kentrotas had unwittingly been at the center of a number of claimants of his finding. Unaware of the French consul's moves, he was forced to hand over the statue to the Turks, promising that in the future he would be paid in pennies. From this point on, no one knows exactly what happened. Documents were displayed, negotiations began, there were threats, some were bribed, there may have been a juror. The result, however, was that the beautiful Aphrodite ended up in the hands of the French. She would never return to the country where she was born…
A few days later, the statue was unloaded at the port of Marseille and on March 1, 1821 was presented in the Champs Elysees, as a gift from the French ambassador to the city, Marquis de Riviere, to the 66-year-old King Louis XVI. Very soon, it would be one of the most important museum exhibits of the Louvre. As a sign of goodwill, a faithful copy of the statue was sent to the museum of Milos.
Η Aphrodite of Milos is one of the most recognizable works of art in the world. It is a masterpiece of ancient Hellenistic sculpture. It is said to have been made between 150 and 50 BC. and harmoniously combines feminine beauty and femininity. In the past, it was believed to be the work of Praxitelis, but today it is clear that its creator is different.
Archaeologists are considering whether it was the work of the sculptor Agisander or Alexander, son of Minidis from Antioch of Meander. Besides, the name is mentioned half at the base of the statue, where the phrase "… NDROS MINIDOU ANTIOCHEUS FROM MEANDROUS POET" has been engraved ". The inscription, shown on drawings on paper when it was discovered, was lost around 1825.
There are many who believe that the joke with this report was erased by its directors Louvre Museum to claim that it was the work of the famous Praxiteles. Agisandros, however, is credited with another statue on display at the Louvre (a bust of Alexander the Great) found in Delos.
Aphrodite of Milos is 2,02 meters high and must have worked in two separate pieces that the artist later connected to the buttocks, where the folds of the garment fall.. The legs and the left arm have also been sculpted separately, while at the time the goddess was created she also wore jewelry as revealed by the marks left on the ears by the earrings, and perhaps a necklace around the neck that again appears from marks.
It is also almost certain that it was a colorful work, as was customary at the time, but the color went away over the years from Parian marble. The right side is more well done and according to experts this probably indicates that it was intended to be placed in a place where people would see the statue from that side.
Opinions differ on what she was holding in her left hand. The initial estimate was that she had an apple because of the myth we mentioned above, while others now speculate that she may have held either a mirror or the shield of Mars with both her hands.