 The form is partly derived from ancient portrayals of Venus and other female nudes, and partly from contemporaneous feminised Hellenistic portrayals of Dionysus/Bacchus.It represents a subject that was much repeated in Hellenistic times and in ancient Rome, to judge from the number of versions that have survived.Discovered at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, the "Sleeping Hermaphroditus" was immediately claimed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese and became part of the Borghese Collection.