Have you ever noticed how many ancient Greek and Roman statues lack noses? If you’ve wondered why, know that it’s not just the weather’s fault. Of course, the wear and tear of thousands of years may have caused the loss of some protruding parts, such as arms and heads.
Spencer McDaniel, a researcher in the Department of Classics at Brandeis University, explains that the protruding parts of the sculptures are generally the first to break due to exposure to the elements and time.
However, not all noseless statues are victims of simple accidents. According to Mark Bradley, professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham, many were deliberately mutilated. An obvious example is the black basalt head of Germanicus, nephew of the emperor Tiberius, in the British Museum, whose nose has clearly been chiseled offprobably by Christians who also engraved a cross on the statue’s forehead.
But why the nose? In ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptian one, statues were believed to contain the essence or soul of the person represented. Mutilation of the nose meant “killing” the spirit, preventing it from breathing. Although many Greek and Roman statues are later, nasal mutilation may have been a symbol of punishment, as was the case in the justice system of the time (so is this why the Sphinx doesn’t have a nose?).
The mutilation of this protruding part was one common punishment in ancient times, inflicted on criminals and adulterers (and there were even more extreme punishments). There was even a city called Rhinokoloura, where noseless criminals were exiled. Damaging a statue in this way was a symbolic way to punish the represented figure and separate oneself from the past and its perceived corruption.
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