Did Most ancient Greeks look Like Their Statues?

[Jr.DNA_test]

The real question is how did that snake catch the three of them naked?

[aruvqan]

@the_apples_fell

Me. I have been told that I do. :lol: My nose, setting of the eyes, and my facial structure all look very classical Greek.

I’m actually Sicilian though, not “Greek”. But my father’s hometown was settled by ancient Greeks.

One of my brothers exgirlfriends, sicilian in heritage looked smack on for a greek statue. She had the straight little nose like this, and the oval face with wideset eyes and cupids bow lips like this one. She had that fairly wavy without being curly or nappy dark dark brown hair, and what I would consider a medium olive skin with chocolate brown eyes.

[the_apples_fell]

@aruvqan

One of my brothers exgirlfriends, sicilian in heritage looked smack on for a greek statue. She had the straight little nose like this, and the oval face with wideset eyes and cupids bow lips like this one. She had that fairly wavy without being curly or nappy dark dark brown hair, and what I would consider a medium olive skin with chocolate brown eyes.

Sounds like me! Except the wavy hair. But my father has it. I have pin-straight hair, and I’ve yet to figure out where I get it from since the rest of my family has wavy or curly.

But I’ve seen plenty of people with an “ancient Greek” appearance, at least facially. So I’d assume at least some ancient Greeks resembled their statues.

[alphaboi867]

@Lemur866

…So stuff that looks gaudy and cheap to us would have looked expensive and aristocratic a couple hundred years ago.

This came up in Eric Flint’s 1632 series (a small West Virginia town transported into Europe in the 30 Yrs War). The town stoner give’s a local woman’s father entirely the wrong idea about how rich he is by wearing tie-dye shirts. He then proceeds to make a fortune introducing tie-dye to Early Modern Europe.

@leahcim

A common misconception. A lot of the lower life expectancy in ancient times is due to infant mortality and death during childbirth. A male who got past infancy could expect a reasonably long lifespan, but all the dead women and babies bring the average down.

If you discount deaths before age five then for most of human history average life expectancy has hovered around the old biblical figure of threescore and ten (70 yrs).

@msmith537

True, the Greeks and Romans did seem to like their women with a certain…thickness…

Everyone did up until the 1960s. The modern Western fad for boderline emaciated women is very much an abberation.

[Mr.Milton]

For Shagnasty, et al: Check out the Pitsa panels; they’re surviving color painting from the ancient Greek world.

Hjem - Sikyon

It’s quite bright in person.

THis is the ancient color palette:

Classical Colour Palette: Pigments Used by Painters in Ancient Greece and Rome