What Greek statues tell us about male beauty Saturday, 7 November 2020, 7:05 PM by Emily Vaughan What Greek statues tell us about male beauty “Naked was stout-hearted Telamonian Ajax; he did not yet have his first whiskers, but he was adorned with a beauty like his father’s in his prime” (Paton, 1958). Statues and beauty have been held in the human eye since the beginning of written history, immortally impossible standards of beauty placed at the heart of academic writings. Bar their obvious aesthetic appeal however statues serve as important historical artefacts representing crucial evidence for societies, and for this blog, I will be exploring what Ancient Greek statues tell us about the expectation for male beauty in Ancient Greece. To take a closer look at these societal expectations of beauty I will be examining two Greek statues, the first one is the Discobolus of Myron. Attributed to the Greek sculptor Myron this statue was originally cast in bronze and is thought to have been completed sometime around the beginning of the classical period. As for what we know about Myron is relatively minor, in his book titled A History of Sculpture Harold Fowler writes that “Myron was a pupil of Ageladas of Argos” (Fowler, 1916), this holds relevance as his influence is reflected in the work of his students such as Polykleitos who’s own work such as the Doryphoros shares similar characteristics with Myron’s work. But what characteristics does Discobolus hold? And what can they tell us about male beauty? Discobolus possesses both rhythmos and symmetrica, harmony and balance held in bodily proportions. The figure is a truly impressive, youthful male competitor solidified in the posture of throwing his disc. Greek males valued athletic success and so the expectation for beauty held by this statue is the athletic prowess held by the athlete, coupled with sexual desirability the hairless anatomy and small phallus all show Greek male’s attitudes to male beauty. Beauty in the way athletes are presented in Greek statues is definitely a motif of the era but what of the masculine beauty held by mythological figures in artistry? The Farnese Hercules is one of the examples that could be used to examine this in closer detail. Thought to have been originally created by Greek sculptor Glykon this depiction of the iconic hero is most likely an enlarged copy made in the early third century, the original bronze statue was lost to crusaders but is older than the copy. Described by author William Pinnock as “Perfect a model of manly grace, is of beauty and strength, and of muscular development” (Pinnock, 1830) the statue holds a startling difference to that of Myron’s work, the statue doesn’t appear to hold balance or rhythm (desired traits of male beauty) the statues beauty lies in the emphasis of virtuous manhood – the hyperbolically virile form represents the ideal physical form. This imperative fits well, the Greeks elevated competitive virtue strength, beauty and fighting skills all of which Glykon manages to capture by the subtle placement the Nemion Lions’ coat on his club as well as the holding of the Apples of Hesperides. Both of the statues I have examined hold somewhat conflicting ideals of Greek beauty, the contrast between the more desired feminine and softened characteristics of the Discobolus in comparison to the striking hyper-masculine qualities of the Farnese Hercules, however both of the statues show that Athletics were definitely desired traits of the Greek ideals of beauty the male body held as an agent of virtue and heroism. Certainly, excellence and honour remained values associated with an idealised male sculpture for the Greeks. As in real life youthful athletes cultivated their bodies as if they were living statues not only as a sign of their own personal self-esteem but also a demonstration of their worth to societies that depended for their survival upon a ready supply of fit young men able to serve as warriors. (Jenkins, 2009). image 1 image 2 References Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams. Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus. Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus. Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies. Book 5: Erotic Epigrams. Translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller. Loeb Classical Library 67. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. Image 1 Source- WordPress (2016). ON ART AND AESTHETICSExploring creativity and beauty across different media. Passionately global. Available at: https://onartandaesthetics.com/2016/04/12/discobolus-of-myron/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2020]. Image 2 Source- Window, A. (2012). The Farnese Hercules and Renaissance “Substitutions.” Available at: http://albertis-window.com/2012/07/the-farnese-hercules-and-renaissance-substitutions/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2020]. Fowler, H. N. (1916). A History of Sculpture. Macmillan. Jenkins, I. D. (2009). The Greek Body. Getty Publications.