The Sleeping Hermaphrodite: The Louvre's Most Surprising Ancient Sculpture
By Hafid Assaoui · 2026-03-12
Tucked in the Greek antiquities wing, a 2,000-year-old Roman sculpture has been shocking and delighting visitors for centuries. Our guide reveals its secrets.
In Gallery 17 of the Louvre's Greek and Roman antiquities wing, far from the crowds of the Denon Gallery, a marble figure lies sleeping on a soft mattress carved from travertine stone. Most visitors pass by without stopping. Those who do stop instinctively walk around it. And then they understand. The oldest trick in art history The Sleeping Hermaphrodite was created by an unknown Roman sculptor in the 2nd century AD, copied from a lost Greek…