The Berenice Venus or "''The Benghazi Venus''" is an ancient

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

n Greek marble statue of the goddess of sexuality and erotic love

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

(150–100

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

). It was found in

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, which may have once marked the location of the legendary

Lake Tritonis Lake Tritonis () was a large body of fresh water in North Africa that was described in many ancient texts. Classical-era Greek writers placed the lake in Ancient Libya. In details of the late myths and personal observations related by these hist ...

.The Benghazi Venus
/ref> It is currently located in the

Penn Museum The Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City, Philadelphia, University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and Sout ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

References

External links

The Benghazi Venus - Penn Museum
History of Benghazi Ancient Greek sculptures Ptolemaic Kingdom Venus Anadyomenes Hellenistic sculpture Marble sculptures in Pennsylvania 2nd-century BC Greek sculptures University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Sculptures of Venus {{US-sculpture-stub