Torso from reduced copy of the Pothos by Skopas

This small, slim statue has been identified as a Roman-made, reduced-scale copy of the famous Pothos sculpture by the ancient Greek artist Skopas. Pothos was the personification of longing, closely associated with Himeros (desire) and Eros (erotic love). Two large-scale statues of the god were made by Skopas, one for the temple of Aphrodite at Megara, near the city of Corinth, and the other for the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace; for both statues, Pothos was depicted as part of a cult group surrounding Aphrodite.

The Pothos type, which survives in Roman copies such as this, is possibly a replica of the Samothracian statue; the cult on the island was famous in Hellenistic and Roman times. The complete figure was a youth who held a long, stafflike object with both hands, leaning on it with crossed legs, and gazing up at Aphrodite. A goose, one of Aphrodite's attributes, appears at his feet. A long cloak draped over his left shoulder fell to the ground, acting as an additional support for the weight of marble (a remnant of the marble strut that would have connected to this is visible on the AMAM work). The torso, though fragmentary, is a graceful depiction of the subject, and is the only marble torso in the AMAM's ancient collection, which contains a number of portrait heads.