digiti

I heard a news report on the radio a few weeks ago about how the relative lengths of your fingers can be a marker of a person's risk of developing some kinds of cancer. It sounds unlikely but apparently it's got something to do with exposure to testosterone in the womb. Some research has suggested that having an index finger longer than your ring finger gives you a significantly lower risk of developing prostate cancer, and there may (or may not) be something similar with women and breast cancer.

The news report made me think of Roman statues. If the link is not immediately clear to you, have a look at the pictures below:

 

imagines

Here are a couple of interesting statues. The one on the left is of course Hercules (note the club and lion skin), from the National Archaelogical Museum of Naples. It's huge and very impressive, conveying his size and strength, but at the same time it's quite a peaceful, reflective work. Behind his back he's carrying the Apples of the Hesperides, the retrieval of which was the eleventh of his twelve tasks. He seems weary, and is perhaps summoning up the strength for one last labour.

The statue on the left by contrast is tiny.It's a bit hard to tell without anything to compare it to, but from memory it's only about 10cm tall. I remember nothing about about this figure, except that it caught my attention. I'm not sure who it is (perhaps Venus? perhaps an anonymous prostitute?), nor if it has any special significance. From looking at it, I would guess that it's made out of terracotta (rather than carved out of marble), and that it's substantially older than the statue of Hercules (which is probably from the 3rd Century A.D.).