Aphrodisias

Aphrodisias rose as a cult center, flourished under Roman patronage, and faded when its goddess was replaced. The sculptors who worked here shaped divine images for the entire Mediterranean world.

The sanctuary predates the city. Worship of a fertility goddess at this site is attested from at least the seventh century BCE, and the tradition may be older. When Greeks arrived in Anatolia, they identified this local deity with their own Aphrodite, though the resulting goddess was distinctive—her canonical image showed her wrapped in bands of symbolic ornament, relating her visually to the Artemis of Ephesus rather than the nude Aphrodite of Greek tradition. The identification reflected genuine theological work: the Greeks saw in this Anatolian goddess the power they called Aphrodite, the force that draws beings together, that makes things beautiful, that generates life. The city that grew around the sanctuary took the goddess's name. When Rome rose to power, the Gens Julia—the family of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and their successors—claimed descent from Venus through Aeneas. Aphrodisias became a city connected to the imperial family through divine genealogy. The Senate recognized this in 39 BCE by granting the sanctuary asylum status. Privilege and patronage followed. The city's sculptors became the most sought-after in the Roman world.