Blog on Juno Ludovisi

I believe that Bryn Mawr's "Juno Ludovisi" portrays a woman, but an important one. While the bust's hairdo from the back portrays a typical hairstyle for women at the time, the front has an almost picture perfect representation of what a goddess' hairstyle would look like. There is an infula weaved throughout her hair, which represents a human priestess, and which would not be worn by a goddess for this reson. A goddess would want to have some human attributes, but not necessarily ones that would signal that they had lesser power than a goddess. Greek gods were often disguised, but the point was to not know that they were a god, so a sculpture of possibly a goddess with strictly human attributes, such as an infula, could be seen as offensive.