Day 5 - A statue of Apollo is located in Place Masséna in downtown Nice. Okay, what's a Greek god doing in the middle of Nice, France? The name of this city itself stems from the Greek God of Victory, Nike. Yes, as in the running shoes. The Greeks were returning from a battle near Marseille around two thousand three hundred and seventy years ago and made a permanent settlement here. So, as a partial tribute, a fountain containing a marble statue of Apollo was unveiled in 1956.
The 23-ft statue weighed seven tons. That's large. However, some of the citizens were offended because the statue had rather obvious hefty male attributes as well. So, the artist returned to make 'the problem' less obvious in a reduction that didn't quell the controversy. In the 1970s the prolonged outcry caused the fountain to be dismantled. Apollo had several temporary homes, near the Major's office and a sports stadium. Finally, it was not until 2011, that he regained his rightful position in the center of the Fontaine du Soleil, even though he's not quite the man he once was.
Interestingly, I tried to see what artificial intelligence would do with a request for an image of this statue. Of course, the Midjourney AI is best at creating new and abstract ideas. It can only approximate real-world sites by what it's learned from images it has seen and learned. More importantly, Midjourney seems to side with the citizens of the past in being keen to not offend.
Therefore, the image below is not like the original, especially in its concern with what it can show in the lower half of its image. We now have a knowledgeable AI that is more than a little prude.
