By 500 BCE, Greek sculptors were creating art in which the gods came to look like perfect human beings and humans looked like gods incarnate. Shown below are some of the pieces which are in the collection of the British Museum.
The most famous male body in Greek art is Discobolus (shown above). This figure is often used as the emblem of the ancient Greeks. The limbs and torso are carefully arranged to correspond with the Greek ideas of balance and rhythm in composition. The marble statue shown above is actually a Roman copy made in the second century CE. The original, which has been lost, was made in the fifth century BCE by the Greek sculptor Myron.
It was only after 400 BCE, that the female form began to appear in Greek sculpture. In early Greece the naked female form was a sign of a religious cult associated with the productivity of the earth or the quest for fertility in childbearing. Female nudity in ancient Greece was never a social norm and in art female nudity is sexually charged.
The small figurine shown above is a female athlete from Sparta. While male athletes competed in the nude, the females were clothed with the right breast bare.
Shown above is the figure of the Goddess Aphrodite sculpted about 360 BCE.
Shown above is the bust of Aphrodite sculpted by Praxiteles which was designed to inspire religious awe even as it aroused sexual desire.
Shown above is a young woman who is struggling to escape from a satyr. She is a nymph, a supernatural being associated with nature. In Greek art, nymphs are often shown as naked. The images of the nymphs being attacked by satyrs functioned as a form of pornography which fulfilled male fantasies of unbridled sex.
Welcome to Street Prophets Saturday. This is an open thread where we can discuss art (Greek, modern, or our own), literature, food, pets, politics, religion, the weather, or whatever else comes to mind.