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What are your thoughts on the Greek perception of human beauty compared with the Egyptian understanding as well as those of our most ancient...

Since both cultures thrived for thousands of years, beauty standards changed within each culture, but in general terms, both cultures valued youth as beauty. Egyptians favored tall, slim bodies with narrow hips. Greeks favored well-muscled, athletic frames. Egyptians favored the female form, while Greeks favored the male form. Egyptians prized skin tone and felt that golden, bright skin was beautiful. Greeks used white lead to whiten their complexions.


The cave art dating back to 20,000 BCE and beyond is difficult to compare with the art of Ancient Egypt and Greece. Like the Greeks and Egyptians, they were polytheistic, and had many drawings and statues of fertility goddesses. Most ancient cave paintings were of animals, and it isn't clear how much perception our most ancient ancestors had of themselves.


In Ancient Greece, men who were muscular and chiseled were considered a standard of beauty. They had been blessed by the gods. The reason most statues of that time period depict small male reproductive organs is that Ancient Greeks considered that more aesthetically pleasing than a larger phallus. In that culture, outer beauty was considered evidence of inner virtue. The word for this was "Kaloskagathos," which means gorgeous to look at, therefore a good person. A standard of beauty for women was a fuller figure and red hair was especially prized. The Greeks were highly interested in human beauty. They frequently had beauty contests, where participants would be pinned with a ribbon highlighting a particularly beautiful body part, like a well-shaped calf or bicep.


In both Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian cultures, women had kohl-rimmed eyes. 


In Ancient Egyptian culture, men are often depicted with reddish-brown skin tones, where women are often of a lighter skin tone. Women of the upper class certainly would have been indoors the majority of the time and wouldn't have had as deep a skin tone as a result. Wigs for men and women were prized. Some scholars have argued that this was for practical purposes, as a way to ward off lice and probably to keep them cooler at night, as well. But regardless of the reason, wigs were definitely in vogue and therefore became a symbol of beauty. Age and obesity were rarely depicted in Egyptian art. The Ancient Egyptians had a word for beauty that translated "never before opened in childbirth," which gives evidence for their emphasis on youth as beauty.

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