151NOTAphrodite

0151NOTAphrodite_Groening

Ovid Met. 10.519-559
Hesiod Th. 190-199

Matt Groening, creator. (Art piece "Venus de Venus" featured in) Futurama, episode "Love and Rocket." TV Series. Curiosity Company: 2013.

The title of the work, Venus de Venus, is a clear reference to the sculpture Venus de Milo. The name implies that the image depicts an Aphrodite-figure from the planet Venus. This makes sense, given that the Aphrodite-figure in the picture is a giant gelatanous blob, rather than a beautiful human woman.

The Venus de Venus is a fictional adaptation of Botticelli's Birth of Venus featured in "Love and Rocket." Bender the Robot and the anthropomorphic Planet Express Ship engage in a debate about obscenity in art. Bender cites the Venus de Venus as an example of a depiction of a nude that cannot be considered obscene, crying "Would you censor the Venus de Venus, just because you can see her spewers?"

The Planet Express ship responds that the image is filthy, and for it to reside in a museum funded by tax-dollars is tantamount to creating a national endowment for stripclubs.

Slide by CB.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.