Beauty : the fortunes of an ancient Greek idea / David Konstan.
Konstan, David, author.
2014
BH108 .K66 2014 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection

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Title Beauty : the fortunes of an ancient Greek idea / David Konstan.
Author Konstan, David, author.
ISBN 9780199927265 (hardcover)
019992726X (hardcover)
Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2014]
Language English
Description xiii, 262 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Call Number BH108 .K66 2014
Dewey Decimal Classification 111/.85
Summary "Beauty offers an elegant investigation of ancient Greek notions of beauty and, in the process, sheds light on how we ought to appreciate the artistic achievements of the classical world. The book opens by reexamining the commonly held notion that the ancient Greeks possessed no term that can be unambiguously defined as "beauty" or "beautiful." Author David Konstan discusses a number of Greek approximations before positioning the heretofore unexamined term kállos as the key to bridging the gap between beauty and desire, and tracing its evolution as applied to physical beauty, art, literature, and more. The book then examines corresponding terms in Biblical Hebrew and ancient Latin literature to highlight the survival of Greek ideas in the Latin West. The final chapter compares the ancient Greek conception of beauty with modern notions of beauty and aesthetics. In particular, it focuses on the reception of classical Greek art in the Renaissance and how Vasari and his contemporaries borrowed from Plato the sense that the beauty in art was transcendental, but left out the erotic dimension of viewing. Even if Greece was the inspiration for modern aesthetic ideals, this study illustrates how the Greek view of the relationship between beauty and desire was surprisingly consistent-and different from our own. This fascinating and magisterial exploration makes it possible to identify how the Greeks thought of beauty, what it was that attracted them, and what their perceptions can still tell us about art, love, desire-and beauty." -- Publisher's description.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-252) and index.
Series Onassis series in Hellenic culture
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
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Beauty in Greek
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Greek beauty today.

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