There’s a good story behind this behind! Two Sicilian farm girl sisters were fighting over who had the better rear. To settle the feud, they ran to the road, lifted their skirts, and asked a guy passing by to be the judge. He chose the older sister’s rear, fell in love, and ran back home to tell his brother all about it. The brother decided to head out there and judge for himself—which he did, and chose the younger sister’s behind. These guys were from a wealthy family, and their father tried to marry them off to rich girls, but they refused to give up on the sisters with the beautiful butts. And so those lucky farm girls ended up marrying money.In gratitude they built a temple in Syracuse and dedicated it to Aphrodite Callipygos, because in Greek calli means beautiful and pygos means buttocks. A Sicilian cult grew around the temple, with many coming to worship at the statue, hoping that they would receive good fortune from those buttocks, just as those farm girls had. The Callipygian Venus statue in this museum was considered so pornographic in the nineteenth century only privileged men on the Grand Tour who paid were allowed to have a look at it. Those beautiful buttocks got smudged by all the kisses they received from her admirers.
We then walked around downtown and made our way to Sansevero Chapel to see the sculpture of The Veiled Christ.the all-knowing Rick Steves said it best:
Carved out of marble, it's like no other statue I've seen (by Giuseppe "Howdeedoodat" Sammartino, 1753). The Christian message (Jesus died for our salvation) is accompanied by a Freemason message (the veil represents how the body and ego are an obstacle to real spiritual freedom).
(no pictures were allowed so this is internet lifted)
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