The History Written on the Classical Greek Body"This book challenges historians of all periods to come to terms with the distortions that they systematically introduce into their work by their reliance on what has been written on paper without looking at what was and was not written on the body. Historians use textual evidence to try to understand what people did in the past. But in interpreting that textual evidence they make assumptions about what past peoples could see. In particular they make assumptions about the way in which the classifications of language were visible to the eye, as well as conceivable in the mind. This book is concerned with the ways in which texts relating to classical Greece, and in particular to classical Athens, classified people and with the extent to which those classifications could be seen by the eye. It compares the qualities distinguished in texts with those distinguished in sculpture and painted pottery and emphasizes the frequent invisibility of the categories upon which historians have laid most stress - the citizen, the free person, the foreigner, even the god. The frequent impossibility of seeing who belonged to which category has major political, social, and theological implications, which are variously explored here. It also has implications for how history is written which go far beyond the case of classical Greece. Nothing short of a revolution in what historians are prepared to treat as source material will be required to take account of the findings of this book"--Provided by publisher. |
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amphora Anavyssos ancient Aphrodite Apollo appearance archaic Aristotle artists astoi astos Athenaios Athenian red-figure Athens athletic Bäbler bearded behaviour Berlin Painter century BC chapter chiton citizen body citizenship claim classical Athens classical Greek clothing concern context contrast cult culture discourse discussion distinctions distinguish Doryphoros Douglas evidence fifth-century figure foreign fourth century gods grave stelai Greece Herakles Herodotos himation human identified images indicate individuals Isokrates kouros language lekythos look Lysias male marked metics muscles Museum non-Greek offer Osborne painted pottery palaestra Pan Painter Parker particular Pausanias Persian Pheidias Plato polis politai political capacities pollution beliefs Polykleitos pots purification question relations relationship representation reveals Roman sanctuary scenes scholars sculpted sculpture sexual Skythians slaves social sort Sparta status stele story suggest texts Theophrastos Thracian Thucydides verbal viewer visual Vulci wearing woman women xenoi Xenophon youth Zeus