Marble composition "Eros and Psyche" (C) is displayed at Cycladic Art Museum during the "Eros: From Hesiod's Theogony to late antiquity" exhibition, in Athens, Greece, on Dec. 10, 2009. The exhibition opened Thursday, which features a collection of 272 artefacts from Greece, Cyprus, Italy and France. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Photo Gallery>>>

    ATHENS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- For ancient Greeks, Eros, the God of Love, was a broad concept, encompassing both sentimental and sexual desire. It is this god who figures prominently in the exhibition titled "Eros: From Hesiod's Theogony to late Antiquity," which opened on Thursday at the Athens Cycladic Art Museum.

    According to Professor Nicholas Stampolidis, the museum director, a collection of 272 artifacts from the 6th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., on loan from 50 museums in Greece, Cyprus, Italy and France, including the Louvre, will be on display until next April.

    Among other masterpieces, the visitors can see the Antonio Canova marble composition of Eros and Psyche, who embrace and are about to exchange a passionate kiss, from the Musei Capitolini Rome; the bronze figurine of a weeping Eros from the Cyprus Museum Nicosia; and the marble relief depicting the erotic encounter of Leda and Zeus transformed into a swan from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

    Due to bold erotic scenes of bestiality, homosexual intercourse and phallic-shaped offerings to gods, entrance to a part of the exhibition is not allowed to minors without escorts.