The Man, Not the Woman.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1926, Page 8

The Man, Not the Woman.

"During the later part of the black figured style of Greek vases, and the earlier part of the red figured style, it was customary to inscribe on the bases the name of some handsome young man, the son of some noble house, and to attach to it the epithet 'Kalos is beautiful/ said Professor Eankine Brown in his lecture on Greek vases at Victoria College last Wednesday. "This helps to date the vases, for it is known when several of these young men must have been born, and it presents a characteristic Greek difference from what would happen if a similar thing were done to-day. On boxes of chocolate a female faco is often found, and a modern potter when desired to recommend his ware by nssopiating it with some good-looking, contemporary would undoubtedly inscribe on it the name of some society beauty or famous musichall actress. The Greek trick of inscribing a young man's name reminds us of the fact, so obvious from their sculpture and literature, that tho Greek ideal of beauty was found in the man, not the woman. When Plato, for instance, discusses beauty, it is tho beauty of the youth of seventeen or eighteen that he considers, not that of a girl of the same age."