Scandalous Arts in Ancient and Modern Communities

Ancient Greek and Roman communities put human bodies on display in art and other media in ways that would be considered "scandalous" in the modern United States. This fact has been exploited by the tourism industry which offers shock and delight through these aspects of the ancient world -- for example, explicit images of sex on Greek vases, stone-carved penises pointing towards brothels in the streets of ancient Pompeii, and violent ancient spectacles such as gladiatorial fights. But did these ancient societies have their own ideas of "scandalous" and how did they differ from our own? In this course, we will unpack our own ideas around what is "scandalous" about the human body while learning about the ways bodies were displayed publicly, treated, and thought about in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome in a variety of "arts," including visual arts, literature, medicine, and public spectacle. Through this, we will examine our relationship to the ancient past and the potential benefits and dangers of using it to think about present issues.