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Chapter Three - Iconographic and Regional Patterns in EIA Naked Male Figurines and the History of Ritual Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2022

Sarah C. Murray
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

The purpose of this chapter is to add iconographic and spatial analyses to the diachronic presentation of the history of nude figurines in , and to consider whether the iconographic patterns and spatial distribution of naked figurines might indicate the existence of different attitudes and practices related to naked males in EIA Greece. Iconographic patterns are somewhat difficult to pin down, although a few identifiable types, like warriors and worshippers, bind together disparate regional traditions. The spatial patterns in the figurine data show that the practice of depositing bronze anthropomorphic figurines, including nude figurines, was likely quite circumscribed during the EIA. The distribution shows a mainly Cretan and western pattern. In order to test whether this geography of EIA nude male figurines should be taken only to indicate the spatial limits of ritual practices associated with dedicating bronze figurines or whether it might indicate the presence of distinct regional iconographies and practices associated with nudity, I check these patterns against patterns in the depiction of nudity in Geometric vase painting. Although this evidence is considerably later than much of the figurines, it suggests that, at least during the eighth century, people in different regions of the Aegean probably had distinct ideas about nudity. I then argue that it is not unreasonable to reconstruct, based on the combined spatial patterns in EIA figurines and EIA vase painting, that these distinct ideas can be extrapolated back into the earlier phases of the EIA. I therefore posit a Cretan and western EIA ideology in which nudity was often associated with ritual practice, and an eastern EIA ideology in which nudity was most often associated with death and vulnerability.

Type
Chapter
Information
Male Nudity in the Greek Iron Age
Representation and Ritual Context in Aegean Societies
, pp. 87 - 137
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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