![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Own up: Which ones of you did google that one up?
Yes, it means "scraper", by which you should however not imagine that the subject is stingy, cheap, or reduced by fate to scrounge a living from more fortunate folks.
Take it literatly. That guy (that particular Apoxyomenos is a guy. For a female version see this wonderful painting by Alma Tadema) is scraping his own skin clean (or thereabout) after a bout at the gym.
Of course, if the Greek athletes had not been silly enough to cover their body in oil before frolicking in the dust (and I'd like to see the statistiques on skin cancer in ancient Greece or Rome; for all its virtues, olive oil does NOT include a sun block), they would not need to scrape all that mixture of sweat, oil and dirt after the exercise (yuck).
And, strangely enough, we would be missing some seriously beautiful pieces of art.
Mind you, this one has lost his strigil, so it does look a bit like he's dancing the Macarena (or some other one hit wonder summer dance) instead:
( But you guys know that I like to go beyond mere appearances... )
Next bit: The Octogonal Courtyard.
Yes, it means "scraper", by which you should however not imagine that the subject is stingy, cheap, or reduced by fate to scrounge a living from more fortunate folks.
Take it literatly. That guy (that particular Apoxyomenos is a guy. For a female version see this wonderful painting by Alma Tadema) is scraping his own skin clean (or thereabout) after a bout at the gym.
Of course, if the Greek athletes had not been silly enough to cover their body in oil before frolicking in the dust (and I'd like to see the statistiques on skin cancer in ancient Greece or Rome; for all its virtues, olive oil does NOT include a sun block), they would not need to scrape all that mixture of sweat, oil and dirt after the exercise (yuck).
And, strangely enough, we would be missing some seriously beautiful pieces of art.
Mind you, this one has lost his strigil, so it does look a bit like he's dancing the Macarena (or some other one hit wonder summer dance) instead:
( But you guys know that I like to go beyond mere appearances... )
Next bit: The Octogonal Courtyard.
Tags: