Beauty & Ugliness in the Ancient World

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.

But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?

Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.
0:02.4	If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.
0:16.0	And enjoy a new release every single week.
0:19.8	Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash
0:23.5	subscribe. Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. You are listening to
0:29.7	Betwicks the sheets. And I'm sure you know the kind of conversations that we have on this
0:34.2	podcast. But just in case you're new, or in case you have suffered a
0:38.0	complete mental collapse and can't remember, then I will give you the fair do's warning,
0:42.5	so you can't get mad at us if you happen to keep listening and get offended. Right, here we go.
0:46.3	This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way,
0:50.2	covering a range of adults subjects, and you should be an adult too. And now we've got that covered.
0:54.1	On with the show. covering a range of adult subjects and you should be an adult too. And now we've got that covered.
0:55.2	On with the show.
1:08.9	Hello, one and all. You have joined me just as I'm popping down to my local blacksmiths in ancient Rome to pick up a new puta vase for a fresh bouquet of flowers.
1:13.6	It sure is hot down here, but it's so much cheaper going to the sauce. There's an insider tip for you.
1:19.6	Oh, and would you look at that, working here among the blacksmiths is none other than Hephaestius, the god of fire and crafts.
1:26.6	Don't get that down your local blacksmiths very often,
1:29.2	do you? God's work here. But I guess when he's not making weapons of the gods in Olympus,
1:35.4	he has to earn a crust just like everybody else. Despite being a Greek god and being married to
1:41.6	the epitome of beauty, Aphrodite, Hephaestus is considered ugly by Greek society.
1:47.5	What made the Greeks and the Romans consider him ugly, though?
	...

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