Male Nudity in the Greek Iron Age: Representation and Ritual Context in Aegean Societies

Description

Why did the male nude come to occupy such an important place in ancient Greek culture? Despite extended debate, the answer to this question remains obscure. In this book, Sarah Murray demonstrates that evidence from the Early Iron Age Aegean has much to add to the discussion. Her research shows that aesthetics and practices involving male nudity in the Aegean had a complicated origin in prehistory. Murray offers a close analysis of the earliest male nudes from the late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, which mostly take the form of small bronze votive figurines deposited in rural sanctuaries. Datable to the end of the second millennium BCE, these figurines, she argues, enlighten the ritual and material contexts in which nude athletics originated, complicating the rationalizing accounts present in the earliest textual evidence for such practices. Murray's book breaks new ground by reconstructing a scenario for the ritual and ideological origins of nudity in Greek art and culture. 03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 04.0_pp_v_vi_Dedication 05.0_pp_vii_viii_Contents 06.0_pp_ix_x_Plates 07.0_pp_xi_xii_Figures 08.0_pp_xiii_xiv_Tables 09.0_pp_xv_xx_Preface 10.0_pp_xxi_xxvi_Acknowledgments 11.0_pp_1_47_Introduction 12.0_pp_48_86_Naked_Male_Figurines_in_the_EIA_Aegean 13.0_pp_87_137_Iconographic_and_Regional_Patterns_in_EIA_Naked_Male_Figurines_and_the_History_of_Ritual_Action 14.0_pp_138_171_The_Lost_Wax_Method_of_Production_of_EIA_Bronze_Figurines 15.0_pp_172_210_Bronze_Figurines_Transformative_Processes_and_Ritual_Power 16.0_pp_211_231_EIA_Nudity_and_Ritual_in_Historical_Perspective 17.0_pp_232_248_Method_and_Approach_in_the_Archaeology_of_the_EIA_Aegean 18.1_pp_249_260_and_Nudity_in_Homer_and_Hesiod 18.2_pp_261_266_Catalogue_of_Bronze_Figurines_Discussed_in_the_Text 18.3_pp_267_274_Sample_of_Vase_Painting_Images 19.0_pp_275_318_Bibliography 20.0_pp_319_322_Index 21.0_pp_323_334_Plate_Section_PDF_Only