Concours de beauté et beautés du corps en Grèce ancienne

Beauty is both fascinating and frightening. The Trojan Paris learned the lesson when he faced Aphrodite, Hera and Athena, as is attested – particularly in the epic poem – by the paradigmatic “Judgement” episode. This beauty competition, in its acute form – this crisis (krisis) – is precisely the starting point of this book dedicated to beauty contests (kallisteia, kallous agôn, euandria, euexia, etc.) within ancient Greek cities from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic and Imperial ones.

Following a historical and anthropological approach, this book explores, through the lenses of ritualised and sometimes institutionalised rivalries, the religious, social and political values of physical beauty. It shows how it defines not only individual but collective identities among both gods and men; it also highlights how the term “beauty” equates order and harmony. It thus offers a reflection considering beauties of the body in the mind of Ancient Greeks and in their practice.