Athens, about the early association of the ephebeia
pyrrhic, or armed dance, was performed nude at thePanathenaia and involved choruses from the Atheniantribes.75 The convention of the warrior athlete who participated in armed dancing and races, still being held inof the continuingdominanceof the aristocracyin a changingEcosystem."Murray's views in Early Greece have beendevelopedfurther in an article, "The Symposium as Societalthe Eighth Century BC: Tradition and Invention (Stock-holm 1983) 195-99.'VecchioOligarca',"Athenaeum66 (1988) 6-10, for the situation in Athens, ca. 440 B.C.73 "The polis derivedfrom the individuals in arms;it was essentially the state of the citizens. Both facts made the defenseofthe state the concernof its folks. There was no question ofthe capability to serve constitutedthe fully competent citizen":E.L. Wheeler,"Hoplomachia and Greek Dances in Arms," GRBS 23

(1982) 223-33, summarizesrecent work on this area.74 R. Ridley, "TheHoplite as Citizen: Athenian MilitaryInstitutions in Their Social Context," AntCl 47 (1978)509-48. P. Ducrey, Guerre et guerriers dans la Grace an-tique (Freiburg,Switzerland 1985) 69-72. For the ephebeiaat Athens and the crypteia at Sparta, see P. Vidal Naquet,Le Goff and P.Nora eds., Faire de l'histoire III (Paris 1974) 151-60; seealso supra n. 45.7' Ridley (supra n. 74) 538-48; Wheeler (supra n. 73).For representationsof the Pyrrhicdance,see Poursat (supran. 33).du guerrier,"in La cite des images (Paris 1984) 35-47. Onthe dress of the knights (not a "uniform,"and infrequently nude),see H. Cahn, "Dokimasia,"RA 1973, 3-22.555originated in earlier times before being introducedinto the Olympic plan.76The Greeks were proud of their soldiers' physiqueand of the tan skin that was the consequence of their exercising in the nude.illustrates how, to a adept military eye, nakednessLet an exact judgment of a man's physical fitness: "He gave directions.., .that the barbariansCaught in the raids be exposed for sale naked. Sostripped, and fat and idle through endless riding inBuggies, they considered that the war would be exactlylike fighting with women."77 The contrast betweentheir own bronzed men's bodies and the white, feminine flabbiness of the Persians revived the gutsof the Greek troops.Male figures on Attic painted vases reveal the meaning of physical attractiveness for athletes, youths, citizens,and soldiers. Most are lithe and slim, though oneAttic red-figure vase reveals a heavy, paunchy figure,(fig. 3): he is a specialized sportsman, a fighter.78 A uncommonscene of naked men who are ugly turns out to signify slaves who prepare the palaestra, not citizens exercising in the gymnasium (fig. 4),79 indicating the dif-Body 3. Red-figurecup, ca. 480 B.C.: sportsmen training. British Museum. (CourtesyTrustees of the British Museum)ference between the free man who worked out bare,naked in the line of work and out of poverty. (Theslaves on this vase, like the sportsmen, are infibulated.) Alaw forbade slaves to work out and anoint themselves inthe gymnasia like free men (though obviously it didnot forbid them to enter in order to do the neededthe gymnasium was characteristic not only of free menin general, but of upper-class citizens, who worked outas members of the hoplite army. Using nudity forCharming reasons, on the other hand, belonged to another degree of reality-and was confined, as we haveseen, to herms, satyrs, and the phase.By the Classical period, the custom-or "habit"-ofnudity had changed, from a religious to a civic practice.From the ritual nudity of the kouros-set up, from theseventh century B.C. on, as picture of Apollo, votive gift,funerary image, offering or servant of the god-and theRite nudity of the sportsman who competed in theOlympic games, dedicated to the gods, there was achange to the athletic nudity of the citizen-soldier. Thetransition was, I believe, originally involved with theRite costume appropriate for initiation rituals.This passage from a spiritual to a civic context was