Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022, A triumph of historical writing, Caroline Vout's "The Classical Body" reveals the anxious, ailing, imperfect, diverse, and responsible bodies of the Greeks and Romans. It explores the questions they asked about their bodies, such as where they come from, what makes them different from gods and animals, and what happens to them when they die.

Format: Hardback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Winner of the London Hellenic Prize
Shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic Runicman Award
Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2022
A Spectator Book of the Year 2022

A gloriously intimate tour of the body in antiquity

Gavin Francis Vout tackles a huge range of ideas and subjects with irrepressible energy ... full of arresting, sometimes startling ideas and facts that topple the Greeks and Romans from their lofty, pristine, snow-white pedestals.

Guardian

A triumph ... an extraordinary book that stopped me in my tracks.

Peter Frankopan

The Greek and Roman body is often seen as flawless - cast from life in buff bronze and white marble, to sit upon a pedestal. But this, of course, is a lie.

Here, classicist Caroline Vout reaches beyond texts and galleries to expose Greek and Roman bodies for what they truly were: anxious, ailing, imperfect, diverse, and responsible for a legacy as lasting as their statues.

Taking us on a gruesome, thrilling journey, she taps into the questions that those in the Greek and Roman worlds asked about their bodies - where do we come from?

What makes us different from gods and animals?

What happens to our bodies, and the forces that govern them, when we die?

Vout also reveals the surprising actions people often took to transform their bodies - from sophisticated surgery and contraception to body oils, cosmetics, and early gym memberships.

You've seen the paintings, read the philosophers, and heard the myths - now here's the classical body in all its flesh and blood glory.

Weight: 852g
Dimension: 243 x 165 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788162906
Edition number: Main