Ancient Greek Nude Sculptures Dazzle In British Museum Exhibition

"Defining Beauty" is a stunning array of sculptures and ceramics that includes some of the most familiar works of Greek antiquity. The exhibition also compares how other cultures treated the human form and their attitudes to nudity, from the Mayans to the Assyrians.

"The Greeks invented the human being," Ian Jenkins, the exhibition's curator, said, pointing to Greek philosophy, mythology and democracy, not just the aesthetics of the sculptures that dominate the exhibition.

The exhibition opens with the striking view of a nude goddess Aphrodite from behind. When visitors walk around the statue, they are met with her guarded, threatening gaze.

Though Greek in origin, she is a Roman copy. So is the discus thrower, Myron's Diskobolos, a study in the perfect "balance of opposites", and some of the other statues in the exhibition.

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