During my visit to the MET, I visited the Greek and Roman arts gallery. There were lots of pottery, sculptures, jewelry, and even coins but the things that interested me most were the armors and battle gear. It made me feel as if the Greeks were obsessed with the body. The armors were created with such detail that they seemed more like fancy outfits for a formal event rather than pieces of protective covering meant to keep someone alive in battle.

Many of the armors were like the one in the picture above - made with amazing detail, right down to the nipple and the curve of every muscle. As I walked through the gallery I also noticed that most of the pottery depicted some sort of battle or event involving some feat requiring incredible strength.















The pictures above are of a cup which depicts part of the thirteenth book of the Iliad. I didn't take any pictures of my own but there were also multiple cups and/or vases showing "Herakles" or Hercules battling a sea-monster or on some other quest.

At the end of the day, one thought I had was that not much has changed since those times. Even in today's society the beauty of the body still runs rampant as seen in Abercrombie & Fitch and or [insert popular clothing brand] ads.

[NOTE: I do not take any credit for the posted pictures, they were found on http://www.metmuseum.org/]