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It Is At This Time That We First Begin To See The Mass Distribution Of The ...

It is at this time that we first begin to see the mass distribution of the kouros figurines in ancient Greece, which were male, military figures depicting the archetypal soldier/hero in the archaic period. The kouros were made as lean, muscular fighters, perfectly proportioned and balanced upon their rostra. They serve to show how, even before the advent of Homeric heroism, there was a tangible link between militant athleticism and the idealised conception of the ancient Greek hero. This remained true of the whole ancient period, from Homer to Plato to Virgil to Pindar.
After the advent of Homer's poetry the link between the idealised male Greek body and the concept of the hero become further institutionalised in ancient Greek art, literature and culture. In place of the ubiquitous image of the kouros came the classical depictions of ancient heroism with the body in particular taking on a more divine form in the major Greek artistic expressionism of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. As a result, we begin to see artwork such as the bronze statue found in Rome dating from circa 150 BC that shows the bruised torso of the classical boxer with another similarly dated artefact highlighting in copper the blood dripping from the boxer's battered face. This fusion of the scantily clad male form with the ideal of the classical hero is one that could not have prospered without there first being in place a certain kind of ancient Greek philosophy that revelled in the masculine depiction of the human form.
Greek confidence in the body can be understood only in relation to their philosophy. It expresses above all their sense of human wholeness. Nothing which related to the whole man could be isolated or evaded; and this serious awareness of how much was implied in psychical beauty saved from the two evils of sensuality and aestheticism. (Clark, 1985:21)
This visual idealisation of the ancient Greek hero was transferred to literature in both the Greek and Roman worlds where the more primitive notion of the hero being confined to purely military pursuits expanded so as to include athletic endeavours and sports. In essence, while the heroes of the archaic period were warriors, the heroes of the Roman Republic were sportsmen as well as conquerors although the essential attributes of both incarnations of the hero remained the same throughout both the Greek and Roman realms. As time went by, the hero had to be skilled in the arts of warfare, in dexterity as applied too athleticism and, increasingly, he must have been shown to display honour and virtue so that his moral conduct dovetailed his physical prowess. This was as true of Achilles as it was of the Roman Emperors of the Republic; a hero could not be lauded if he was not mentally as well as physically superior to all men.

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