According to the Wikipedia entry [1] and other pages mentioned in another comment [2], the statue was found with a fragment of a left hand holding an apple, and a right hand with a draped sash. This was taken to understand that the statue represented the Judgement of Paris [3].<p>So apparently it is known what the hands held, which seems to make this speculation unnecessary.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo</a>
[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474238" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474238</a>
[3] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris</a>
I'd like to know about the Winged Victory of Samothrace<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace</a>
Until we discover time travel, learn to understand alien cultures, and universally mesh with the minds of artists, we'll never really know what the Venus statue was intended to be.<p>Which is not to say that this scenario is impossible. Just that we are not there yet.
You either say "the Venus of Milo" (English), or you say "Venere di Milo" (Italian). "De" is Spanish and has nothing to do with its name.