Aphrodite visits the Big Apple

A nude torso of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, went on public display in New York on Thursday -- the first time the alluring marble sculpture from the 1st century BC has been seen outside her mythical birthplace.

With her classic figure and glowing patina, “Aphrodite Anadyomene,” or Aphrodite emerging from the sea, literally came out of the Mediterranean. The 3-foot-tall torso was recovered by divers at Na Paphos in 1956 on the southwest coast of Cyprus.

Bathed in soft light and surrounded by 88 other splendid relics, the goddess is displayed at the Onassis Cultural Center in Midtown Manhattan in “From Ishtar to Aphrodite: 3200 Years of Cypriot Hellenism.”