The widespread habitual use of clothing is one of the changes that mark the end of the
Neolithic and the beginning of
civilization. Clothing and adornment became part of the symbolic communication that marked a person's membership in their society. Thus nakedness in everyday life meant being at the bottom of the social scale, lacking in dignity and status. However, removing clothes while engaged in work or bathing was commonplace, and deities and heroes might be depicted nude to represent fertility, strength, or purity. Some images were subtly or explicitly erotic, depicting suggestive poses or sexual activity.
Mesopotamia In
Mesopotamia, most people owned a single item of clothing, usually a linen cloth that was wrapped and tied. Possessing no clothes meant being at the bottom of the social scale, being indebted, or, if a slave, not being provided with clothes. In the
Uruk period, there was recognition of the need for functional and practical nudity while performing many tasks, although the nakedness of workers emphasized the social difference between servants and the elite, who were clothed. Sculpture representations of nudity indicates positive associations, in particular the fertility of women with large breasts and wide hips. The assumption of
sexual shame regarding nudity may be based upon
later interpretations. Male nudity represented defeat in battle and death. The identity of the goddess depicted in the
Burney Relief is a topic of scholarly debate;
Lilith,
Ishtar/
Inanna or Kilili her messenger, and
Ereshkigal are proposed.
Egypt For the average person in
ancient Egypt, clothing changed little from its beginnings until the
Middle Kingdom. Both men and women of the lower classes were commonly
bare-chested and
barefoot, wearing a simple
loincloth or skirt around their waist. Slaves might not be provided with clothing. Servants were nude or wore loincloths. Although the genitals of adults were generally covered, nakedness in ancient Egypt was not a violation of any
social norm, but more often a convention indicating lack of wealth; those that could afford to do so covered more. Nudity was considered a natural state. Laborers would be naked while performing many tasks, particularly if hot, dirty, or wet; for example, farmers, fishers, herders, and those working close to fires or ovens. depicted as a nude woman, her body arching over the reclining earth god
Geb, supported by the air god
Shu During the
Early Dynastic Period (3150–2686 BCE) and the
Old Kingdom (2686–2180 BCE), the majority of men and women wore similar attire. Skirts called
shendyt—which evolved from loincloths and resembled
kilts—were customary apparel. Women of the upper classes commonly wore a (), a dress of loose draped or translucent linen which came to just above or below the breasts. Female servants and entertainers at banquets were partly clothed or naked. Children might go without clothing until
puberty, at about age 12. The status of upper class children was shown by wearing jewelry, not clothing. Being born naked, humans were also nude in the afterlife (although in new bodies at the prime of life). (approx. 2500–2300 BCE),
Abusir necropolis,
Egypt In the
First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BCE) and the
Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 BCE), clothing for most people remained the same, but fashion for the upper classes became more elaborate. During the
Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BCE), portions of Egypt were controlled by
Nubians and by the
Hyksos, a Semitic people. During the brief
New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE), Egyptians regained control. Upper-class women wore elaborate dresses and ornamentation which covered their breasts. Those serving in the households of the wealthy also began wearing more refined dress. These later styles are often shown in film and TV as representing ancient Egypt in all periods.
Aegean civilization In some ancient Mediterranean cultures, even well past the hunter-gatherer stage, athletic and/or cultist nudity of men and boys – and rarely, of women and girls – was a natural concept. The
Minoan civilization prized athleticism, with
bull-leaping being a favourite event. Both men and women participated wearing only a loincloth. Everyday dress for men was normally bare-chested, whilst women wore an open-fronted dress.
Greece Male nudity was celebrated in ancient Greece to a greater degree than any culture before or since.
Hesiod, the writer of the poem
Theogony, which describes the origins and genealogies of the
Greek gods in
Ancient Greek religion, suggested that farmers should "Sow naked, and plough naked, and harvest naked, if you wish to bring in all
Demeter's fruits in due season." The status of freedom, maleness, privilege, and physical virtues were asserted by discarding everyday clothing for athletic nudity. Nudity became a ritual costume by association of the naked body with the beauty and power of the gods. The female nude emerged as a subject for art in the 5th century BCE, illustrating stories of women bathing both indoors and outdoors. The passive images reflected the unequal status of women in society compared to the athletic and heroic images of naked men. In
Sparta during the
Classical period, women were also trained in athletics. Scholars do not agree whether they also competed in the nude, the same word (, : naked or lightly clothed) was used to describe the practice. Women may have competed in specific events, such as foot racing or wrestling, which was consistent with the need to develop endurance. It is otherwise agreed that Spartan women in the classical period were nude only for specific religious and ceremonial purposes. In the
Hellenistic period, Spartan women trained with men, and participated in more athletic events. However, unlike the later Roman baths, those in Hellenistic Greece were segregated by sex.
Ancient Greece had a particular fascination for
aesthetics, which was also reflected in clothing or its absence.
Sparta had rigorous codes of training (, ) and physical exercise was conducted in the nude. Athletes competed naked in public sporting events. Spartan women, as well as men, would sometimes be naked in public processions and festivals. This practice was designed to encourage
virtue in men while they were away at war and an appreciation of health in the women. Women and goddesses were normally portrayed clothed in sculpture of the
Classical period, with the exception of the nude
Aphrodite. In general, however, concepts of either
shame or offense, or the social comfort of the individual, seem to have been deterrents of public nudity in the rest of Greece and the ancient world in the east and west, with exceptions in what is now South America, and in Africa and Australia.
Polybius asserts that
Celts typically fought naked, "The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life." In
Greek culture, depictions of erotic nudity were considered normal. The Greeks were conscious of the exceptional nature of their nudity, noting that "generally in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the custom is held to be dishonourable; lovers of youths share the evil repute in which philosophy and naked sports are held, because they are inimical to tyranny". The origins of nudity in ancient Greek sport are the subject of a legend about the athlete
Orsippus of Megara.
Rome The Greek traditions were not maintained in the later
Etruscan and Roman athletics because its public nudity became associated with
homoeroticism. Early Roman masculinity involved prudishness and paranoia about effeminacy. The
toga was essential to announce the status and rank of male
citizens of the
Roman Republic (509–27 BCE). The poet
Ennius declared, "exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace".
Cicero endorsed Ennius' words. In the
Roman Empire (27 BCE – 476 CE), the status of the upper classes was such that public nudity was of no concern for men, and for women only if seen by their social superiors. At the public Roman baths (
thermae), which had social functions similar to a modern beach, mixed nude bathing may have been the norm up to the fourth century CE. Jews during the Greco-Roman period maintained negative attitudes towards nudity, both as a temptation for illicit sexuality and a distraction from the life of
holiness.
Ancient Roman attitudes toward male nudity differed from those of the Greeks, whose ideal of masculine excellence was expressed by the nude male body in art and in such real-life venues as athletic contests. The
toga, by contrast, distinguished the body of the adult male
citizen of Rome. The poet
Ennius () declared that "exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace ()," a sentiment echoed by
Cicero. Public nudity might be offensive or distasteful even in traditional settings; Cicero derides
Mark Antony as undignified for appearing near-naked as a participant in the
Lupercalia festival, even though it was ritually required. Negative connotations of nudity included defeat in war, since captives were stripped and sold into slavery. Slaves for sale were often displayed naked to allow buyers to inspect them for defects, and to symbolize that they lacked the right to control their own bodies. The disapproval of nudity was less a matter of trying to suppress inappropriate sexual desire than of dignifying and marking the citizen's body. Thus the , a type of
gladiator who fought with face and flesh exposed, was
thought to be unmanly. The influence of Greek art, however, led to
"heroic" nude portrayals of Roman men and gods, a practice that began in the 2nd century BC. When statues of Roman generals nude in the manner of
Hellenistic kings first began to be displayed, they were shocking—not simply because they exposed the male figure, but because they evoked concepts of royalty and
divinity that were contrary to
Republican ideals of citizenship as embodied by the toga. In art produced under
Augustus Caesar, the adoption of
Hellenistic and
Neo-Attic style led to more complex signification of the male body shown nude, partially nude, or costumed in a
muscle cuirass. Romans who competed in the
Olympic Games presumably followed the Greek custom of nudity, but athletic nudity at Rome has been dated variously, possibly as early as the introduction of Greek-style games in the 2nd century BC but perhaps not regularly until the time of
Nero around 60 AD. At the same time, the
phallus was depicted ubiquitously. The phallic
amulet known as the (from which the English word "fascinate" ultimately derives) was supposed to have powers to ward off the
evil eye and other malevolent supernatural forces. It appears frequently in the archaeological remains of
Pompeii in the form of (wind chimes) and other objects such as lamps. The phallus is also the defining characteristic of the imported Greek god
Priapus, whose statue was used as a "
scarecrow" in gardens. A penis depicted as erect and very large was laughter-provoking, grotesque, or
apotropaic. Roman art regularly features nudity in mythological scenes, and
sexually explicit art appeared on ordinary objects such as serving vessels, lamps, and mirrors, as well as among the art collections of wealthy homes. Respectable
Roman women were portrayed clothed. Partial nudity of goddesses in Roman Imperial art, however, can highlight
the breasts as dignified but pleasurable images of nurturing, abundance, and peacefulness. The completely nude female body as portrayed in sculpture was thought to embody a universal concept of
Venus, whose counterpart
Aphrodite is the goddess most often depicted as a nude in Greek art. By the 1st century AD, Roman art showed a broad interest in the female nude engaged in varied activities, including sex. The
erotic art found in Pompeii and
Herculaneum may depict women performing
sex acts either naked or often wearing a (strapless bra) that covers the breasts even when otherwise nude.
Latin literature describes prostitutes displaying themselves naked at the entrance to their
brothel cubicles, or wearing see-through silk garments. The display of the female body made it vulnerable;
Varro thought the Latin word for 'sight,
gaze', , was etymologically related to , 'force, power'. The connection between and , he said, also implied the potential for violation, just as
Actaeon gazing on the naked
Diana violated the goddess. One exception to public nudity was the (public baths), though attitudes toward nude bathing also changed over time. In the 2nd century BC,
Cato preferred not to bathe in the presence of his son, and
Plutarch implies that for Romans of these earlier times, it was considered shameful for mature men to expose their bodies to younger males. Later, however, men and women might even bathe together. Some Hellenized or Romanized Jews resorted to
epispasm, a surgical procedure to restore the foreskin "for the sake of decorum". In
Palestine, Jews were hostile to the Roman baths beyond the issue of nudity. Another exception regarding female nudity was during certain festivals, such as
Veneralia, that included ritual nudity.
India From around 300 BC, Indian mystics have utilized naked
ascetism to reject worldly attachments.
China In much of Asia, traditional dress covers the entire body, similar to Western dress. In stories written in
China as early as the 4th Century BCE, nudity is presented as an affront to
human dignity, reflecting the belief that "humanness" in Chinese society is not innate, but earned by correct behavior. However, nakedness could also be used by an individual to express contempt for others in their presence. In other stories, the nudity of women, emanating the power of
yin, could nullify the
yang of aggressive forces.
Late antiquity The
Fall of the Western Roman Empire marked many social changes, including the
rise of Christianity. Early Christians generally inherited the norms of dress from Jewish traditions, except for the
Adamites, an obscure Christian sect in
North Africa originating in the second century who worshiped in the nude, professing to have regained the innocence of
Adam. The transformation of European culture during the following centuries was not a unified process. Concepts of individuality and privacy were emerging in the context of cities, each of which was a world of its own. In contrast to the modern city, urban life in
late antiquity was not anonymous for the elite, but dependent upon public reputation, which was built upon birth into an upper-class family. The maintenance of social distance between the "well-born few" and their inferiors was of prime importance. For men, maintaining this superiority included sexual dominance based upon fear of
effeminacy or emotional dependence, but without regard to sexual orientation. Although clothing was a marker of status in many public situations, nudity at the public baths was an everyday experience where the upper classes maintained their social distinction whether naked or clothed. The establishment of the
Christian Church as the state religion made clothing the necessary sign of a person's rank in society and relationship to the Emperor. During the first centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, although conversion to Christianity progressed, pagan beliefs regarding the body and sexual conduct remained. The Germanic people of Europe lived in extended families that included several generations plus servants and slaves, in great wooden houses. All slept together, naked, around a common fire. In the later Middle Ages, beginning with the
Carolingian period, both men and women dressed from head to foot, going nude only when they swam, bathed, or slept. The Roman baths continued to be used, even in monasteries, but were more often reserved for the ill. People swam in rivers and bathed in hot springs,
Charlemagne doing so at
Aix-en-Provence with as many as a hundred guests. In some pagan ceremonies, a young girl or woman would undress entirely to call forth the fertility of the fields. However, touching a woman was interfering with this life process, and prohibited. Nudity was
sacred for pagans as part of procreation, thus associated only with sex. The early Christian view was quite different from the pagan, based upon the human body as the creation of God. Until the beginning of the eighth century,
baptism had been performed by full immersion and without clothing in an octagonal basin attached to every cathedral. Converts emerged reborn, so early Christians associated nudity with
grace. The elimination of naked baptism in the 8th century represented the Christian acceptance of the pagan view of nudity is sexual. This led to the clothing of Christ on the Cross, the original depictions being naked, as would have been the case for Roman crucifixions. The late fourth century CE was a period of both Christian conversion and standardization of church teachings, in particular on matters of sex. The dress or nakedness of women that were not deemed respectable was also of lesser importance. A man having sex outside marriage with a respectable woman (
adultery) injured third parties: her husband, father, and male relatives. His
fornication with an unattached woman, likely a prostitute, courtesan or slave, was a lesser sin since it had no male victims, which in a
patriarchal society might mean no victim at all. == Post-classical history ==