‘Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi, or so Aristotle says in the ‘Magic’ and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his ‘Succession of Philosophers’…
Those who think that philosophy is an invention of the barbarians explain the systems prevailing among each people. They say that the Gymnosophists and Druids make their pronouncements by means of riddles and dark sayings, teaching that the gods must be worshipped, and no evil done, and manly behaviour maintained.’
In the ancient world, especially in Greece or Rome, nudity per se implied nothing sexual but a mere lack of status or inability to find the means to clothe yourself.
Slavery was common and it was up to the master to provide the clothes necessary and if no money was available, well, the slave just remained naked.
I think the concept of sin, shame and evil associated with nakedness arose after the male dominated christian hierarchy decided to propagate their views on what was acceptable or not.
Do you know that they still had a hard time, especially with the open display of phalluses everywhere, including the daily bread, which was usually phallic shaped.
They began retaliating by marking the buns or bread with a cross, the original hot cross bun, as if that would make the shape holy!
The Shivling worship is actually a worship of the act of copulation.
Most of the ancient idols showed nudity as a way of life, now even breast feeding in public is considered obscure.
It’s funny to think that 2,000 years later, we still cannot view the picture of a naked body without a ‘mature’ tag being associated with it.
Ankur Aggarwal
sree
Sandip Chaudhuri
vbr
shobhendrasrivastava
