Statues Of Aphrodite And Dionysus Unearthed In Turkey

Statues representing Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love, and Dionisus, the Greek God of Wine, have recently been discovered in the ancient city of Aizanoi, by archaeologists from Kütahya Dumlupınar University.

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Each head is made of limestone, with Aphrodite's head measuring 19 inches (50 centimeters) and Dionysus' head measuring 17 inches (45 cm) tall. It's unknown how the statues' heads became separated from their bodies.
According to Greek mythology, the deities Aphrodite and Dionysus had a grand love affair. So, perhaps it's fitting that archaeologists found the ancient statuary heads of the goddess of love and the drunk reveler near each other during a dig in the ancient city of Aizanoi, in western Turkey.

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Situated in what is now Çavdarhisar, next to Kütahya in present-day Turkey, the city of Aizanoi was an Ancient Greek city in western Anatolia, having been inhabited since the Bronze Age. The city emerged in the Hellenistic period as an important political and economic centre.
In 133 BC, the city was bequeathed to Rome, becoming part of the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana. A well-preserved Temple of Zeus, a theatre-stadium complex, and macellum inscribed with the Price Edict of Diocletian are among the surviving remains from the period.

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Being part of the Penkalas project, the excavations resulted in the discovery of 2 heads illustrating Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation, and Dionysus, the god of the grape-harvest, wine, of fertility, orchards and fruit, vegetation, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.
The discovery of the deities' heads helps top off a previous find; on an earlier dig, archaeologists found the statues' headless bodies.

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Previously, fragments of a statue portraying Hygieia, a goddess of health, cleanliness, and hygiene have been found, together with the recent discovery can cast new light on polytheistic worship in Roman eras, while also indicate the existence of an ancient sculpture workshop within the site.
“We know that Aphrodite and Dionysus existed under different names in Roman times. These findings are important to us because they show that the polytheistic culture of ancient Greece existed for a long time without losing its importance in the Roman era,” says the archaeologists.
H/T: Live Science