Who actually damaged (removed genitalia from) the greek and roman
statues and why?  I've heard two stories; 1) the vikings did it
believing it would prevent the romans from procreating, 2) Victorian
age archeologists did it so as not to offend peoples morality of the
Victorian era and then blamed the vikings.

---

Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 20 Apr 2004 09:05 PDT

Dear seanward,

Please let me know if this answers your question:

Many ancient Greek and Roman statues suffered damage simply as a
result of careless handling. However, many were indeed willfully
mutilated, especially their genitals. But neither the Vikings nor the
people of the Victorian era are to blame. The Vikings not, because
they entered the stage of European history three centuries after the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, when almost no classical works of
art were on display anymore. And the Victorian age archeologists not,
because they were too aware of the historical value of the statues to
damange them (in 19th century Britain they may have covered table legs
to hide those shocking things vaguely reminding of human legs, but
they did not destroy ancient art); besides, the proverbial Victorian
Prudery did not exist in other European countries, yet the ancient
statues their archeologists presented were missing genitals as well.

The real Vandals, concerning the mutilation of classical statues, were
the early Christians. To them, all things sexual were suspicious. That
included works of art, no matter if the portrayed naked person was a
pagan diety, an athelete or anyone else.

As an example for this habit, you may want to read this article on
what happened to the statues displayed in the Roman public baths,
written by the historian Niels Hannestad:
http://www.archaeologie-sachbuch.de/Fleischer/Texte/Hannestad1.htm

Is that the information you were looking for? Please let me know.

Best regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Question by seanward-ga on 22 Apr 2004 09:04 PDT

Yes that answers the question.  Thank you.

Dear seanward,

Thank you for your positive response. Since you were satisfied with
the information I provided, I hereby close the question by posting my
text again, now as a valid answer:

Many ancient Greek and Roman statues suffered damage simply as a
result of careless handling. However, many were indeed willfully
mutilated, especially their genitals. But neither the Vikings nor the
people of the Victorian era are to blame. The Vikings not, because
they entered the stage of European history three centuries after the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, when almost no classical works of
art were on display anymore. And the Victorian age archeologists not,
because they were too aware of the historical value of the statues to
damange them (in 19th century Britain they may have covered table legs
to hide those shocking things vaguely reminding of human legs, but
they did not destroy ancient art); besides, the proverbial Victorian
Prudery did not exist in other European countries, yet the ancient
statues their archeologists presented were missing genitals as well.

The real Vandals, concerning the mutilation of classical statues, were
the early Christians. To them, all things sexual were suspicious. That
included works of art, no matter if the portrayed naked person was a
pagan diety, an athelete or anyone else.

As an example for this habit, you may want to read this article on
what happened to the statues displayed in the Roman public baths,
written by the historian Niels Hannestad:
http://www.archaeologie-sachbuch.de/Fleischer/Texte/Hannestad1.htm

Search terms used:
christians statues roman genitals
://www.google.de/search?q=christians+statues+roman+genitals&btnG=Suche&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1


Best regards,
Scriptor

You might be interested in this excellent answer to a similar question:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=253553