What was the Venus de Milo doing with her lost arms…?

For those who are not familiar with the classic Venus de Milo statue (shame on you!), a refresher:

As you can see, the statue (famously) does not have its arms, having lost them in antiquity before her discovery in more modern times.

Shamefully, it never occurred to me to think what the arms were doing in the original statue, but my incuriosity happily did not fall on others who have offered theories as to what the pre-busted statue might have looked like.

Virginia Postrel offers an absolutely fascinating article for Slate.com and an equally fascinating video showing one possibility, that the statue originally had the Venus spinning thread.  Check the article out here.

If you’re too lazy to do so, here’s the 3D presentation regarding what the complete statue might have looked like.  This can be found in the above article.  Of course, this is all speculation, but it just might be close to the truth:

Venus de Milo Spinning Thread by CosmoWenman on Sketchfab