It even seems as if, apart from Love, the Greeks admired youthful
masculine beauty more than feminine charms; and many of them would
probably have agreed with Schopenhauer that men are more beautiful than
women. Certain it is that, as the most eminent critic of Greek art,
Winckelmann, points out “the supreme beauty of Greek art is male rather
than female.”
The following citation from Grote’s famous work on Plato suggests some
reasons for this fact, besides reflecting further light on points
discussed in the preceding pages:—
“In the Hellenic point of view, upon which Plato builds, the attachment
of man to woman was regarded as a natural impulse and as a domestic,
social sentiment; yet as belonging to _a commonplace rather than to an
exalted mind_, and seldom or never rising to that pitch of enthusiasm
which overpowers all other emotions, absorbs the whole man, and aims
either at the joint performance of great exploits, or the joint
prosecution of intellectual improvement by continued colloquy. We must
remember that the wives and daughters of citizens were seldom seen
abroad; that she had learned nothing except spinning and weaving; that
the fact of her having seen so little and heard as little as possible,
was considered as rendering her more acceptable to her husband; that her
sphere of duty and exertion was confined to the interior of the family.
The beauty of women yielded satisfaction to the senses, but little
beyond. It was the masculine beauty of youth that fired the Hellenic
imagination with glowing and impassioned sentiment. The finest youths,
and those, too, of the best families and education, were seen habitually
uncovered in the Palæstra and at the public festival-matches; engaged in
active contention and graceful exercise, under the direction of
professional trainers. The sight of the living form in such perfection,
movement, and variety, awakened a powerful emotional sympathy, blended
with æsthetic sentiment, which in the more susceptible natures was
exalted into intense and passionate devotion. The terms in which this
feeling is described, both by Plato and Xenophon, are among the
strongest which the language affords—and are predicated even of Sokrates
himself. Far from being ashamed of this feeling, they consider it
admirable and beneficial, though very liable to abuse, which they
emphatically denounce and forbid. In their view it was an idealising
passion, which tended to raise a man above the vulgar and selfish
pursuits of life, and even above the fear of death. The devoted
attachments which it inspired were dreaded by the despots, who forbade
the assemblage of youths for exercise in the Palæstra.”
Another reason for the Greek preference of masculine beauty is suggested
by Mr. Lecky, who attributes it to the fact that the principal art of
the Greeks, sculpture, is “especially suited to represent male beauty,
or the beauty of strength”; whereas “female beauty, or the beauty of
softness,” became the principal object of the painters, after
Christianity had won attention for the feminine virtues of gentleness
and delicacy. (For further remarks on Greek Beauty, see the chapters on
“Four Sources of Beauty,” and “The Nose.”)