The artistic anD literary conventions for facial hair reflect biology: adult men have beards, women, girls, and boys do not.185 Although razors have been preserved archaeologically, adult males are generally not depicted in art clean-shaven.186 That beards were considered markers of adult masculinity is demonstrateD in Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen, in which Praxagora and her coconspirators don false beards in order to pass as men in the assembly (24-25, 68-72, 126-127).
The “first beard” of adolescent boys was an important indicator of maturity.187 On a red-figure hydria by Phintias in the Munich Antikensammlungen (Figure 3.11a), three different life stages are reflected in the facial hair of the figures: the two adult men display thick beards and moustaches, while the young standing boy is beardless. The seated youth, however, is distinguished by the “peacH fuzz” visible on his cheeks. As Gloria Ferrari has demonstrated, the first beard was highly erotically charged.188 The appearance of hair on the face and body marked the transition from childhood to adulthood; hence, from potential eromenos (beloved) to erastes (lover).189 Like cephalic hair, facial hair emanates from the head, the seat of generation. The bearded adult male is by definition a sexual being.
Older men are identifiable by their white or gray beards (e. g., Figures 4.10, 5.20), which may be slightly longer and unkempt (e. g., Figure 3.15) compared to the beards of younger men.190 The decrepitude of Geras (Figure 3.12) is indicated by the sparse growth on his chin. Likewise, Scythians sometimes have short, thin beards.191 Other barbarians may be bearded or clean-shaven. Slaves are generally beardless, clearly marking them in opposition to their bearded masters.
Body Hair
Hair that grows on the body is often particularly meaningfuL because of its borderline relationship with the flesh and with clothing.192 Body hair functions on a fundamental level as an indicator of the division between human and animal, with further distinctions between civilized and savage, child and adult, male and female.193 Vivid testimony to the dynamic relationship between humans and animals is founD in the Pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomies:
Hairy legs mean lasciviousness, as in goats. Too much hair on breast and belly mean lack of persistence, as argued from birds, in which this bodily characteristic is most developed; but breasts too devoid of hair indicate
3.11. Red-figure hydria, Phintias, ca. 510 BCE, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek 2421, Munich. ©Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek Munchen; photograph by Renate Kuhling.
Impudence, as in women. So both extremes are bad, and an intermediate condition must be best. Hairy shoulders mean lack of persistence, on the analogy of birds: too much hair on the back, impudence, as in wild beasts. Hair on the nape of the neck indicates liberality, as in lions: hair on the point of the chin, a bold spirit, on the evidence of dogs. Eyebrows that meet signify moroseness, by congruity: eyebrows that droop on the nasal and rise on the temporal side, silliness, as is seen in swine. (8i2b. i4—26)194
3.12. Red-figure pelike, Geras Painter, ca. 480—470, Musee du Louvre, G234, Paris. ©RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY.
For the author of the Physiognomies, body hair is gendered male. Unfortunately, the visual evidence is far less emphatic: although body hair may have been indicated on sculpture by means of polychromy, no traces have been preserved.195 A few examples of chest hair on mature men are discernible in vase painting (e. g., Figures 3.10; 6.1), though no obvious patterns emerge.196 Armpit hair is likewise generally absent (though perhaps the short hatch-marks under the arm of the man in Figure 3.10 Are intended to represent hair).
That armpit hair was considered masculine is indicated by the humorous passage in Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen, in which the women of Athens disguise themselves as men in order to infiltrate the assembly: one woman claims to have “armpits bushier than underbrush” (60-61); her companion chimes in: “Me too. I threw my razor out of the house right away, so that I’d get hairy all over and not look female at all” (65-67).197 A general lack of hair was therefore
Feminine; it was likewise a barbarian trait. Herodotus claims that Egyptian priests shaveD their entire bodies in order to protect themselves against body lice (2.37).
World History
