Provided are a method and apparatus of detecting an eye using symmetrical and moment characteristics of an object. According to the method, an eye band is extracted from a facial image, and eye candidates each having symmetry are detected by extracting symmetrical component from the eye band. After that, a moment line integral is calculated on the basis of contrast of the eye band image and a coordinate of each of the eye candidates is inputted, so that each of the detected eye candidates is verified.