details about military training in Sparta, or, in
Athens, about the early association of the ephebeia
before its regularization in 335 B.C. Gymnastic exercises and the Pyrrhic dance must have played an important part as a training for war.74 The Athenian
pyrrhic, or armed dance, was performed naked at the
Panathenaia and involved choruses from the Athenian
tribes.75 The convention of the warrior sportsman who participated in armed dancing and races, still being held in
of the continuingdominanceof the aristocracyin a transforming
Ecosystem."Murray's views in Early Greece have been
developedfurther in an article, "The Symposium as Societal
Organization," in R. Hdigg ed., https://s3.amazonaws.com/beach-naturist/nude-beaches-for-women.html of
the Eighth Century BC: Tradition and Innovation (Stock-
holm 1983) 195-99. See E. Gabba, "La societhateniese nel
'VecchioOligarca',"Athenaeum66 (1988) 6-10, for the situation in Athens, ca. 440 B.C.
73 "The polis derivedfrom the individuals in arms;it was essentially the state of the citizens. Both facts made the defenseof
the state the concernof its individuals. There was no question of
compulsory military service; it was the other way around:
the capability to serve constitutedthe fully qualified citizen":
E.L. Wheeler,
"Hoplomachia and Greek Dancing in Arms," GRBS 23
(1982) 223-33, summarizesrecent work on this subject.
74 R. Ridley, "The
Hoplite as Citizen: Athenian Military
Institutions in Their Own Social Context," AntCl 47 (1978)
509-48. P. Ducrey, Guerre et guerriers dans la Elegance an-
tique (Freiburg,Switzerland 1985) 69-72. For the ephebeia
at Athens and the crypteia at Sparta, see P. Vidal-Naquet,
Le Goff and P.
Nora eds., Faire de l'histoire III (Paris 1974) 151-60; see
also supra n. 45.
For nude beach 2015 ,see Poursat (supra
n. 33). M. Detienne, "La phalange: problkmeset contro-
GrBceancienne (Paris 1968) 123; F. Lissarrague, "Autour
du guerrier,"in La cite des images (Paris 1984) 35-47. On
the dress of the knights (not a "uniform,"and scarcely naked),
see H. Cahn, "Dokimasia,"RA 1973, 3-22.
555
into the Olympic program.76
The Greeks were proud of their soldiers' physique
and of the tan skin that was the consequence of their exercising in the nude. A story about Agesilaos of Sparta
illustrates how, to a adept military eye, nakedness
allowed an exact judgment of a guy's physical fitness: "He gave directions.., .that the barbarians
Caught in the raids be exposed for sale nude. So
when his soldiers saw them white because they never
stripped, and fat and idle through constant riding in
Buggies, they considered the war would be exactly
like fighting with women."77 The comparison between
their own bronzed men's bodies and the white, feminine flabbiness of the Persians revived the courage
of the Greek troops.
Male figures on Attic painted vases reveal the significance of physical attractiveness for athletes, youths, citizens,
and soldiers. https://s3.amazonaws.com/beach-naturist/nudist-family-pic-porn.html are lithe and slender, though one
Attic red-figure vase reveals a hefty, paunchy figure,
holding boxing thongs, with others at the palaestra
(fig. 3): he's a specialized sportsman, a fighter.78 A uncommon
scene of naked guys who are ugly turns out to symbolize slaves who prepare the palaestra, not citizens exercising in the gymnasium (fig. 4),79 indicating the dif-
Body 3. Red-figurecup, ca. 480 B.C.: sportsmen training. British Museum. (CourtesyTrustees of the British Museum)
ference between the free man who worked out naked,
Nude in the line of work and out of poverty. (The
slaves on this vase, like the sportsmen, are infibulated.) A
law prohibited slaves to exercise and anoint themselves in
the gymnasia like free men (though obviously it did
not forbid them to enter in order to do the essential
work for their upkeep).80 The custom of frequenting
in general, but of upper class citizens, who exercised
as members of the hoplite military. Using nudity for
Charming reasons, on the other hand, belonged to a different level of reality-and was confined, as we've
seen, to herms, satyrs, and the period.
nudity had changed, from a spiritual to a civil practice.
From the ritual nudity of the kouros-set up, from the
seventh century B.C. on, as image of Apollo, votive gift,
funerary picture, offering or servant of the god-and the
Rite nudity of the sportsman who competed in the
Olympic matches, dedicated to the gods, there was a
change to the fit nudity of the citizen-soldier. The
transition was, I believe, initially involved with the
ritual costume suitable for initiation rituals.
This passage from a spiritual to a civic context was