TEHRAN – Fragments of Iran’s life-size marble statue of Penelope excavated in Persepolis in 1945 along with its other Roman counterparts are currently on display at Milan’s Prada Foundation.

Earlier in March, Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization Director Masud Soltanifar announced Iran’s plan to lend the statue for a four-month exhibit based on an agreement with the Italian government.

The statue belongs to the National Museum of Iran.

“Reciprocating, Italy will lend four historical statues to Iran for a showcase after the exhibition ends,” Mahnaz Gorji the former director of the National Museum told Persian service of ISNA on Tuesday.

It is surmised that the artifact was brought back to the Persian capital of Persepolis by Xerxes after the sacking of Athens.

It lay scattered in three fragments in the ruins of the Persepolis Treasury, a headless torso lying in Corridor 31, with its shattered right hand in Hall 38.

The circumstances of discovery recall the destruction of Persepolis by Alexander the Great in spring 330 BC. Before torching the palace, Alexander removed the gold stored in the Treasury and allowed his army to plunder the rest of its contents.

Penelope is a character of Homer’s Odyssey, one of the two great epic poems of ancient Greek literature. Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (also known as Ulysses), and the daughter of Icarius and his wife Eurynome.

She waited twenty years for the final return of her husband from the Trojan War, while she had hard times in refusing marriage proposals from several princes for four years after the fall of Troy. For this reason, she is often regarded as a symbol of connubial fidelity.

Photo: The statue of Penelope is on display at the National Museum of Iran.

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