Tell us the best physic but it functioned as a valuable motivator to the youth of Greece to keep themselves in gwd

231

Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Winter, 1985)

Nudity survived in Greek athletics because it was supported by heroic
tradition and faith. So using nudity for aggression and apotropaic
Goals which is characteristic of the early stages of human society and which
reflects the animal part of human nature lived with an unusual persistency
and beyond recognition in the historical period and found refuge under the
mantle of one of the most illustrious facets of Greek culture: the athletics.

condition. The Greek with his sharp eye for physical attractiveness seen flabbiness, a pale skin, desire of condition, or
imperfect growth as disgraceful, and the sick-developed youth was the laughingstock of his companions."
Kenneth Clark (The Nude, p. 19) commented: "So our surmise the discovery of the nude as a kind of artwork is
connected with idealism and beliefs in measurable symmetries seems to be accurate, but it is only half the truth. What
other peculiarities of the Greek thoughts are involved? One obvious solution is their belief that the body was something
to take pride in. and should be kept in perfect cut." Yet, Clark continued, "But in fact Greek trust in the body
can be comprehended simply in relation to their philosophy. It expresses above all their awareness of human wholeness.
Nothing which related to the whole man could be isolated or evaded; and this serious awareness of how much was
implied in physical attractiveness saved them from both evils of sensuality and aestheticism (p. 21). nudists sex
["Nudity in Greek Sports," 4361 asserts "The public nakedness which doesn't, in the 1970's shock us as it
shocked the Romans-though it does, perhaps, seem somewhat uncivilized for the Greeks-empowered the sportsmen
to reveal the complete control they exerted over their bodies. Since they were the only people to compete nude,
they could well believe they were the only individuals capable of such self control: here, perhaps, was a clear
superiority over the barbarians, who had to hide themselves both to avert tempting others and to conceal their own
lack of management." For more references seeing the practice of nudity in Greek sport, see ibid., pp. 434 n. 10,



LARISSA BONFANTE
Abstract
The Greeks viewed their custom of fit man nudity
well as from their own past. A surveyof male nudity as a
costume in Greece attempts to follow its origin in eighthcentury ritual, its slow transformationfrom initiation
Meaning in various spiritual, magic, and social circumstances. The characterof this institution can be seen more
Definitely by comparing it with earlier Near Eastern approaches to nakedness, and to the after modern"barbarian"perspectives of the Hebrews, Etruscans,and Gauls,
as well as to the contemporaryviews of female nudity,
before its acceptancein the Hellenistic interval.*

as a costume.' This is a surprising occurrence. That
We've not been more surprised by it is due to the fact
that we follow in their convention and take the Greeks
as models, forgetting how frequently their associations and
Perspectives made them the exception, and not the rule,


among ancient peoples.
world didn't forget. While not, as we shall see, entirely
understanding the value of the custom, they
were proud of its singularity.
A study of nudity in Greece should be undertaken
from the historical standpoint. I restrict myself, in the
Current post, to a concern of the evidence of artwork
and literature in an effort to understand what lay
behind the words and figures concerning and representing nudity that have come down to us, and to clarify something about the original character of an-

Among the innovations of the ancient Greeks that
changed our way of seeing the world, one of the most
Visible is a certain type of public nudity-nudity
present articlewas presentedat
the Institute for AdvancedStudy in Princetonin 1980. I am
Thankful for the support and guidance of Homer and Dorothy
Thompson, Christian Habicht, S.D. nude beache , W.S. Heckscher, Seth Benardete, Leo Raditsa, Myles McDonnell,
Brunilde S. Ridgway, Evelyn B. Harrison, R. Ross Holloway, Mark Davies, Michael Vickers, Brian Shefton,
Hans JiorgBloesch, and the anonymousAJA reviewers.
Along with the conventional AJA abbreviations,the following are used in this post:
Boardman,

Five fundamental motives accounting for mankind's use of
Garments will be located to be appropriate at various
stages of our discussion of nudity: 1) as protection
against the components, notably the cold; 2) for societal
reasons, to differentiate members of a tribe or class; 3)