This Sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum told me a really interesting story.
When I first looked at it, I thought it was someone who got eaten by a snake. I saw a snake in perfect condition and then only the bottom half of a person. That’s why this piece of art really caught my attention. I wanted to know why the snake ate the woman, so I read the description on the bottom of the statue, and I found out that it wasn’t supposed to look like it did. It was originally something else; it just broke in several places and deteriorated to the point where it was only the bottom half of what it started out to be.
The original statue was of Hygieia, the personification of health and daughter of Asklepios, the God of healing. I was so disappointed. Then, I thought about it and how ironic the sculpture remains were. The snake is in great condition. There is nothing broken on the snake. it is fully intact, but half of Hygieia is missing. Like I said before, it looks like the snake ate her, and all that remains of her is her bottom half. It is ironic, because this woman is supposed to be the personification of health. She is supposed to heal others like her father, but it appears from the statue remains that she cannot even save herself.
The deeper meaning that I created from this broken statue is that the Greek God’s deteriorated. No one believes in these Gods that do magnificent and terrible things anymore, because they can explain these magnificent and terrible things using science now. So, Hygieia was never able to heal people and neither was her father. Greek Mythology was a lie.
