Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

THE HUMAN FIGURE

in spite of complete undress, regard was had to decency and modesty in the gymnasia, is clear from a passage in Aristophanes (Clouds, 973): “ And it behoved the boys, while sitting in the school of the gymnastic-master, to cover the thigh, so that they might exhibit nothing indecent to strangers ; and then again, after rising from the ground, to smooth down the sand and to take care not to leave an impression of the person for their lovers. And no boy in those days anointed himself below the navel so that the first tender down bloomed on his privates as it were on fresh apples.”

4. Brauty CONTESTS AND FURTHER REMARKS ON NAKEDNESS

It would not be easy to decide the question—‘‘ Did the Greeks, in the artistic representation of the naked human body, attain the most perfect mastery because they so often had an opportunity of seeing beautiful men perfectly naked, or did they feel such delight in the sight of naked men because their eye had been rendered impressionable and capable of understanding the marvel of the naked human body through art?’ Between the two facts an harmonious reciprocal action may have existed ; by art the joy in nakedness became elevated, and the numerous opportunities of seeing ideally beautiful men naked must have had a fruitful reaction upon art.

Certainly it will no longer appear surprising that this almost unbounded delight of the Greeks in bodily beauty led to the arrangement, everywhere popular, of beauty contests, some of which have been already mentioned. We know of most of them from Athenzus (xiii, 609e) who unfortunately only briefly mentions them, but expressly gives details of the prizes which were bestowed upon the victorious girls, with which we need not weary the reader. In any case, these contests were combined with a more or less complete undress of the girls contending for the prize.

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