Those who study the nature of beauty are at once plagued by a
singular issue: what does it mean to say something is beautiful? On
the one hand, beauty is associated with erotic attraction; on the
other, it is the primary category in aesthetics, and it is widely
supposed that the proper response to a work of art is one of
disinterested contemplation. At its core, then, beauty is a
contested concept, and both sides feel comfortable appealing to the
authority of Plato, and via him, to the ancient Greeks generally.
So, who is right-if either? Beauty offers an elegant investigation
of ancient Greek notions of beauty and, in the process, sheds light
on modern aesthetics and how we ought to appreciate the artistic
achievements of the classical world itself. The book begins by
reexamining the commonly held notion that the ancient Greeks
possessed no term that can be unambiguously defined as "beauty" or
"beautiful." Author David Konstan discusses a number of Greek
approximations before positioning the heretofore unexamined term
kallos as the key to bridging the gap between beauty and desire,
and tracing its evolution as applied to physical beauty, art,
literature, and more. Throughout, the discussion is enlivened with
thought-provoking stories taken from Homer, Plato, Xenophon,
Plutarch, and others. The book then examines corresponding terms in
ancient Latin literature to highlight the survival of Greek ideas
in the Latin West. The final chapter will compare the ancient Greek
conception of beauty with modern notions of beauty and aesthetics.
In particular, the book will focus on the reception of classical
Greek art in the Renaissance and how Vasari and his contemporaries
borrowed from Plato the sense that the beauty in art was
transcendental, but left out the erotic dimension of viewing. A
study of the ancient Greek idea of beauty shows that, even if
Greece was the inspiration for modern aesthetic ideals, the Greek
view of the relationship between beauty and desire was surprisingly
consistent-and different from our own. Through this magisterial
narrative, it is possible to identify how the Greeks thought of
beauty, and what it was that attracted them. Their perceptions
still have something important to tell us about art, love,
desire-and beauty.
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