Not the Classical Ideal

Book excerpt: Ancient Greece is characterized by a vision of reality in which a pre-eminent human type is defined in opposition to non-ideal 'others'. The social structure of democratic Athens privileged male citizens, while marginalizing women, resident aliens, and slaves. Across a broad spectrum of classical Greek imagery, this anthology provides an investigation of this 'otherness'. Their methodologies ranging from traditional to avant-garde, an international cast of authors develops a nuanced picture of 'otherness', the visual criteria that denote it, and its social and political functions in regard to gender, class, and ethnicity.