Statue of Hermafroditus at the Archaeological Museum of Venice

“Hermafroditus wrestling with a satyr”

Sculpture – Greek marble (Height 74 cm) 128 AD

Hermafroditus struggling with a satyr at the Archaeological Museum in Venice, Italy

Hermafroditus This statue depicts a Hermafroditus struggling to escape a satyr who is trying to rape him.

With his right arm, he attempts to reach and injure the satyr’s eyes with his fingers, whilst his left hand tries to grab the satyr’s foot to make him fall backwards.

This is the interpretation attributed to this sculpture by art historians, who have analysed it in relation to other depictions of a Hermafroditus grappling with a satyr.

The theme of a satyr wrestling with a Hermafroditus is a classic motif of the Greco-Roman period.

One of the best-known examples is the Dresden Symplegma, which depicts a Hermafroditus and a satyr in an embrace that is part combative, part erotic.

Hermafroditus The word ‘Symplegma’ originally meant ‘braided’ or ‘entwined’, but in an artistic context it had come to be synonymous with an erotic and voluptuous embrace during sexual intercourse.

The theme of the Symplegma applied just as much to the embrace of a satyr and a Hermafroditus as it did to that of Leda and the swan.

Numerous frescoes have been discovered on the theme of the Symplegma between a satyr and a Hermafroditus in Pompeii.

Some of these frescoes, which are quite amusing, depict horrified satyrs at the very moment they realise their mistake: oh no, it’s not a young girl!

These numerous frescoes from Pompeii depicting the Symplegma are on display in the secret chamber of the Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Hermafroditus