Dancing Eros (300–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Dancing Eros (300–200 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The region of Myrina in Asia Minor (now part of modern Turkey) is known for its abundance of ancient terracotta figurines. Eros, the Greek god of love, was especially popular. Here he is depicted as a nude youth, not a small child. Eros’ extra-long legs and arms, though only partially preserved, are thrown about in a carefree dance. He wears a celebratory floral crown atop his long curls. Once probably fully painted, only traces of red pigment survive on the face. A figurine like this one may have been a votive or offering of thanks to Eros or Aphrodite, his mother, also a goddess of love, for a successful marriage.

Object facts

• Title: Dancing Eros
• Date: 300–200 BCE
• Culture: Anatolia, Myrina, Greece
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 29 cm (11 7/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1915.1

A detail from the museum

Figurines of Eros are often paired with figurines of his mythological wife, Psyche.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• “A Myrina Figurine.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 1, no. 4 (1915): 1–1.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.