#87 Homer Statue

#87 Homer Statue

The Honer Statue is located on the South Lawn in front of Old Cabell Hall.

This statue of the Greek poet Homer came to the University in 1907 as a gift from John W. Simpson, of New York City, at the request of the sculptor, Sir Moses Ezekiel. A native of Richmond, Ezekiel had attended the Virginia Military Institute (he was VMI's first Jewish student) and fought with his fellow cadets at the Battle of New Market during the Civil War.

Ezekiel went on to study sculpture in Berlin and Rome. His Homer statue, meanwhile, went on to become central to a popular tradition on Grounds: streaking. It began as early as 1974, when a student dressed only in a Batman cape was witnessed racing across the Lawn. Similar instances resulted in arrests, but some essential need had been stirred and a challenge identified—to run naked from the steps of the Rotunda down the Lawn, kiss the statue of Homer, and return.