Ancient Chinese statues belong to Greek God of Love, says archaeologist

Calcutta News.Net
Wednesday 2nd December, 2009

New Delhi, December 2 : An archaeologist has said that two mysterious bronze statues unearthed in central China's Henan Province in the 1980s have found to belong to Eros, the Greek God of Love.

The two statues, which can be dated back to around 500 A.D., were about 5 centimeters high, each with two holes on both sides, suggesting that they may have been used as pendants.

The statues bore apparent similarity with Eros in appearance as they both featured baby-faced boys with wings, according to Huo Hongwei, a scholar with National Museum of China.

British archaeologist Aurel Stein proved in 1907 that several winged angels in the mural paintings in a monastery in west China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region were drawings of Eros at around 200 A.D.

Huo argued that similarity in details between the statues and the paintings prove that the statues are made after the image of Eros.

"The statues' wings lift upward at the tips, which is very unusual among Chinese gods but the same with those of the Eros on the mural paintings," Huo said.

The curly hair of the statues and that of the Eros on the paintings were almost identical, he added.

Chinese scholars are looking for similar images or miniatures of Eros along the Silk Road to track the route that carried Greek culture to ancient China, according to Huo.

Huo is now writing a thesis proving the identity of the statues.

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