Ancient Greece's Obsession with Beauty

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Recommended: The influence of ancient Greek civilization

Ancient Greece was one of the most important civilizations in the history of mankind. Ancient Greece spanned thousands of years, beginning in 1100 BC and ending with the end of the Hellenistic period in 146 BC. Ancient Greece made many contributions to the modern world, such as language, politics, philosophy, science, art, architecture, beauty, and much more. Beauty now a days is in most cases considered as how pretty something looks on the outside. Most people these days look at outer beauty rather than inner beauty. Beauty in ancient Greece is different than beauty now in many different ways. In ancient Greece, beauty can be defined in many things. Beauty in family, art, architecture, sculpture, and literature shows all the many definitions of beauty in ancient Greece.

Family was important in ancient Greece. “The ancient Greeks had a society of Patriarchy and Misogyny” (Katz 71). Patriarchy is a society where the father had supreme authority over the family. Misogyny meant that the women were worthless. Women would usually get married at a very young age of around twelve to sixteen years old. Most women did not have a choice of whom to marry and instead their father, uncle, or brother chose for her. The richer the woman was the earlier she got married, but the poor woman got married at a bit higher age. They did not have the authority to do many things that men did. They were not able to go to the Olympics, the streets of the city, or even sometimes the marketplace. If they ever went anywhere they usually went to weddings and funerals and religious ceremonies, or to visit other women. Since they stayed in their houses for long periods of time they were usually in charge of the house when it comes to cleaning or or...

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...aic Period, Archaic ‘patriarchy’ and high sexual culture in Classical Athens.

Kats, Marilyn. “Ideology and ‘The Status of Women’ in Ancient Greece.” History and Theory, Beiheft 31: History and Feminist Theory. Vol. 31. Blackwell Publishing for Wesleyan University. 1992. 70-97.

This chapter of the book focuses on the status of women in ancient Greece in comparison to the eighteenth through twentieth century.

Levin, Saul. “Love and the Hero of the Iliad.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Vol. 80. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1949. 37-49.

In this chapter it talks about the Iliad and what the Greeks point of view is over the Iliad.

Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. This piece of literature is written by Plato and in it Plato explains through the use of many metaphors what it is to become the philosopher king.

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