HELGA The Body in Antiquity: Images, Ideals, and Social Practices

The human body is one of the central subjects of ancient visual and material culture. In Greek art it appears as divine or heroic body, as citizen body, as gendered body, as vulnerable or marked body. These representations are not simply images of physical appearance. They show how ancient societies gave visual form to ideas of order, status, beauty, age, gender, power, difference, and belonging.

The course takes body images as a starting point for discussing central questions of classical archaeology and ancient visual culture. It asks how visual conventions shaped the human figure, and how images distinguished between norm and deviation, social roles, cultural identities, and forms of exclusion. Traditional iconographic approaches will be combined with perspectives from gender studies, otherness, and disability studies.

In the course, we will discuss selected examples from Greek visual and material culture, including early Greek vase-painting, terracotta figurines with transformed bodies, sculptures of gods and athletes, portrait heads of philosophers, and funerary stelai. Particular attention will be paid to ideals of the body, to questions of similarity and difference, and to the visual construction of stereotypes. We will also consider ancient depictions of bodily form, facial features, gestures, posture, and attributes were used to express social identities.

The aim is to develop a critical understanding of body images as culturally coded representations. Students will learn to analyse the body not only as an iconographic motif, but as a visual medium through which ancient societies negotiated norms, identities, hierarchies, and forms of difference. Regular attendance, active participation, and preparation for the sessions are expected.

OBS:

Forskningsområde indgår som en integreret del af:

• Forhistorisk Arkæologisk metode 3: kritik og formidling  (Forhistorisk arkæologistuderende, 4.semester)
• Klassisk arkæologi: kulturmøde (Klassisk arkæologistuderende, 4. semester)
• Sprogkundskab (Græsk- og Latinstuderende, 6. semester)
• Global history (Historiestuderende, 4. semester)