Chapter 24
Beauty
David Konstan,
David Konstan
Search for more papers by this authorDavid Konstan,
David Konstan
Search for more papers by this authorBook Editor(s):Pierre Destrée,
Penelope Murray,
Pierre Destrée
Search for more papers by this authorPenelope Murray
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
The ancient Greek term that most closely approximates English “beauty” is kállos, a word that is closely associated with sexual attractiveness in human beings, and almost always retains a connection with visible appearance. This chapter examines the implications of the Greek concept for classical views of art and their relation to modern aesthetics.
References
- Barney, Rachel. 2010. “Notes on Plato on the Kalon and the Good.” Classical Philology 105: 363–377.
- Danto, Arthur C. 2003. The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Delivorrias, Angelos. 1995. “ Polykleitos and the Allure of Feminine Beauty.” In Polykleitos, the Doriphoros, and Tradition, edited by Warren G. Moon, 200–217. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
- Eco, Umberto. 2004. History of Beauty, translated by Alastair McEwen. New York: Rizzoli.
- Ford, Anton. 2010. “Response to Irwin.” Classical Philology 105: 396–402.
- Gombrich, Ernst. 1990. Review of David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989). New York Review of Books 15: 6–9.
- Halliwell, Stephen. 2011. Between Ecstasy and Truth: Interpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to Longinus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hyland, Drew A. 2008. Plato and the Question of Beauty. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
- Irwin, Terence. 2010. “The Sense and Reference of Kalon in Aristotle.” Classical Philology 105: 381–396.
- Konstan, David. 2013. “ Themistius on Royal Beauty.” In The Purposes of Rhetoric in Late Antiquity: From Performance to Exegesis, edited by Alberto Quiroga, 179–188. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Konstan, David. 2014. Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Kosman, Aryeh. 2010. “Beauty and the Good: Situating the Kalon .” Classical Philology 105: 341–357.
- Levinson, Jerrold. 2011. “ Beauty s not One: The Irreducible Variety of Visual Beauty.” In The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology, edited by Elisabeth Schellekens and Peter Goldie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Dominic Montserrat, ed. 1998. Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings: Studies on the Human Body in Antiquity. London: Routledge.
- Moscoso, Javier. 2011. Historia cultural del dolor. Madrid: Taurus.
- Nehamas, Alexander. 2007. The Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Peponi, Anastasia-Erasmia. 2012. Frontiers of Pleasure: Models of Aesthetic Response in Archaic and Classical Greek Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199798322.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Pollitt, J.J. 1974. The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History, and Terminology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Porter, James I. 2010. The Origins of Aesthetic Thought in Ancient Greece: Matter, Sensation, and Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Prettejohn, Elizabeth. 2005. Beauty and Art 1750–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Joachim Ritter, Karlfried Grunder, and Gottfried Gabriel, eds. 1982. Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Vol. 8. Basel: Schwabe.
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Scruton, Roger. 2009. Beauty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.1093/actrade/9780199229758.001.0001 Google Scholar
- J. Solomon, trans. 1984. “ Eudemian Ethics.” In The Complete Works of Aristotle. Vol. 2, edited by J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Squire, Michael. 2011. The Art of the Body: Antiquity and Its Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Staley, Gregory A. 2010. Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Steiner, Wendy. 2001. The Trouble with Beauty. London: Heinemann.
Further Reading
- For those who desire an introduction to the nature and problems of modern aesthetics, a good place to start is the books by Danto (2003), Scruton (2009), and Nehamas (2007) listed in the bibliography: all three are clear and forceful, and present very different views. For ancient art, one may consult Squire (2011). There is a useful overview of Western concepts of beauty in Prettejohn (2005), and also in the entry on “Schöne” in Ritter, Grunder, and Gabriel (1982); the part on Classical conceptions of beauty is by Glenn Most. For ancient Greek attitudes toward physical beauty, one may consult the essays in Montserrat (1998), and for the classical conception of beauty and its aftermath, Konstan 2014.
