BREISTS: ONE OR TWO?

1. Stewart 1998, 41; story of Helen’s exposed breast was related by numerous authors, eg Euripides Helen; Aristophanes Lysistrata 155; Little Iliad fr. 13. Pliny 33.23.81.

2.  Bennett 1912, 13. Not the classical ideal: Cohen 2000, McNiven 2000.

3.  Rolle 1989, 91; Davis-Kimball 2002, 118. to Roberta Beene for descriptions of mounted archery techniques.

4.  Other examples of “crude etymologies of names,” Lefkowitz 2007, 5; Fowler

2013,  687 and n19. “Absurd” derivations, Braund 2010, 18. Hellanikos FGrHist 4 F 107 and Tzetzes; Tyrrell 1984, 21, suggests that Hellanikos drew on Herodotus and Hippocrates. See Fowler 2013, 291.

5.  Rolle 1989, 90-91.

6.  Hippocrates Airs, Waters, Places 17; Diodorus 2.45.3 and 3.53; Justin 2.4.5-11; Pomponius Mela 3.34-35; Orosius 1.15-16; Apollodorus Bib 2.5.9; Curtius 6.5.2729. Arrian 7.13.2; Strabo 11.5.1. See Tyrrell 1984, 47-49; Dowden 1997, 97; Blok 1995, 22-36.

7.  Philostratus On Heroes 57; Maclean and Aitken 2004, 86; Bennett 1912, 13-14. Tryphiodorus Taking of Hias 35. Procopius Gothic Wars 6.15.16-25. Sami or Fenni, Uralic language group. Sagging breasts mocked in Greek art: Sutton 2000, 196-99; also mocked in Nart sagas, see below.

8.  Amazon etymologies ancient and modern: Blok 1995, 21-37. “Husbandless,” Huld 2002. Colarusso 2002, Nart Saga 26, 129-31. Mayor, Colarusso, and Saunders

2014.

9.  Blok 1995, 23-24n2; “terrifying asymmetry,” Yalom 1998, 23-24. Stewart 1998, 118. Tyrrell 1984, 49; Marazov 2011b, 159. Modern lesbian poet Marina Tsve-taeva rejects the ideal of symmetry and “ponders the erotic allure of the lesbian Amazons’ single breast,” Burgin 1995, 67. Artistic inconsistency, eg Bothmer 1957, 221; Ridgway 1974, 5.

10.  A literary exception is Thersites, an ugly lout in Homer’s Iliad. A genre of burlesque Greek vases depict gods and heroes as silly and ugly; Sutton 2000. Amazons made a rare appearance in a lost comedy by Cephisodorus, The Amazons (5th century BC): Bron 1996, 76.

11.  Stewart 1998; Bol 1998.

12.  Gidley and Rowling 2006; Hall 2013. Diodorus 3.53; Tyrrell 1984, 140n18. Pliny 7.2.15 mentions an African tribe of hermaphrodites called Androgyni (“male-female”) with small nipple on one full breast, but says nothing about Amazons’ breasts. The Greek queen Pheretime of Cyrene in North Africa punished her enemies’ wives by cutting off their breasts, 6th century BC: Herodotus 4.202.

13.  Klaproth 1814, 267. Abercromby 1891. By 1814, the Circassian corset, modified to actually boost the bust and enhance cleavage, became popular among European ladies.

14.  Colarusso 2002, 37, 45n7. Bosom support in antiquity: Serwint 1993. Flattening and “cross-your-heart” effects: Sturgeon 1995, 493, 500.

15.  Ancient Greek and Roman men’s “muscled” cuirasses are relatively flat. Asher-Perrin 2013.

16.  Padding hypothesis, Baynham 2001, 120 and n25.

17.  Christy Halbert, former champion boxer, USA Boxing Women’s Task Force: Levy 2012.

18.  Diodorus 4.63.1-3. Ovid Heroides 16.149-52. Quote, Propertius 3.14.