Pompeii Lakshmi
Indian figurine found in Italy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Pompeii Lakshmi is an ivory statuette that was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 79 CE. It was found by Amedeo Maiuri, an Italian scholar, in 1938.[1] The statuette has been dated to the first-century CE.[2] The statuette is thought of as representing an Indian goddess of feminine beauty and fertility. It is possible that the sculpture originally formed the handle of a mirror.[2] The yakshi is evidence of commercial trade between India and Rome in the first century CE.
Pompeii Yakshi | |
---|---|
Material | Ivory |
Height | 24.5 cm (9+1⁄2 in) |
Discovered | c. 1930–1938 Pompeii |
Present location | Secret Museum, Naples, Italy |
Identification | 149425 |
Originally, it was thought that the statuette represented the goddess Lakshmi, a goddess of fertility, beauty and wealth, revered by early Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.[3][4] However, the iconography, in particular the exposed genitals, reveals that the figure is more likely to depict a yakshi, a female tree spirit that represents fertility, or possibly a syncretic version of Venus-Sri-Lakshmi from an ancient exchange between Classical Greco-Roman and Indian cultures.[1]
The figure is now in the Secret Museum in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.[5]