First, it was a toga. Then, it was more conventional attire--a shirt, tie and slacks. Although the clothes kept getting ripped off, presumably by local residents who weren't happy about letting others' morality alter their city's public art, the group kept coming up with replacement outfits. "They don't believe in exposing their children to nudity at a young age," explains Steve Hammond, president and CEO of the convention bureau. One conventioneer described it as a form of pornography.
The 7-foot bronze statue is a replica of the mythical Greek god of the sea found in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The Greek government gave it to the city in 1972, and for 28 years, no one had tried to clothe it.
Soon after the group left, the city found a law on the books saying that no individual or group may cover public art. Permission will not be given the next time someone wants to outfit Poseidon. Hammond hopes the home-schoolers will come back anyway. "There are other parts of the convention center that would allow them to conduct their business without them having any exposure to the statue," he says.
