Humans in Greek Statues
Or, why can’t these guys put some clothes on?
Inspired by a VERY weird conversation on Sounis' Chatzy. TA, your sister has a dirty mind.
Said convo got me onto the subject of Greek statues in general, so I thought I'd post.
Warning, the following does have examples of these statues If you know anything about art or ancient history, you've seen most of these pieces already and I can't scar you more than you already have been.
The explanation I’ve studied, and think makes a lot of sense, is that Classicist periods such as ancient Greece valued humans as a sort of limitless uber-race (sorry to bring up vocab that should be used thousands of years later, but I’ve got it on my mind after studying the Holocaust - I really need some Greece discussion to get my mind out of deep depression). Greece was basically the inventor of the Classicist view. Greek statues were:
Muscled,
Balanced,
And undeniably quite hot.
In my history teacher’s words, Greeks “valued the human body”. It was art, it wasn’t taboo. These ideas came back in the Roman and Napoleonic eras, especially in statues of dictators or emperors who wanted to appear godlike.
Another view is that, contrary to what they're saying over on Smart Remarks bc, there were gays back then, in fact it was far more accepted than it is now (I promise I'll keep my views to myself - go to my journal and comment if you want my opinion) and this was probably an art form that spoke to them.
The Subject: Classicist views, especially relating to art and/or humans. Discuss.