Women looked up to Aphrodite, Goddess of love, sex, beauty and fertility and depicted her with a round face, large breasts and a pear-shaped body. This then became the beauty ideal for Greek women.
Athletic physiques with rounded, firm muscles and little fat were considered most attractive. Men with reddish-blonde hair, full lips, and glistening tans were considered to be the most beautiful in ancient Greece.
Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη, romanized: Helénē, pronounced [helénɛː]) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world.
For the ancient athletes running was a must. They run a lot as running gives the highest cardiovascular payoff with the littlest effort. There were no slick gym machines and Greeks relied purely on body-weight exercises using whatever they could find. Lifting stones and animals for strength.
Weightlifting was common among ancient Greeks, since their culture celebrated strength. Soldiers trained with weights and by doing gymnastics before battle, while weightlifting was a standard activity in gymnasia.
They are typical with a big back, well-developed traps, rounded shoulders, and a narrow waist. This V-shaped torso is considered the ideal body type by many people.
Helen of Troy, Greek Helene, in Greek legend, the most beautiful woman of Greece and the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and sister of the Dioscuri.
In Ancient Greece, Aphrodite – the Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation – lived up to her title, deemed the most beautiful and desired of all the Goddesses.
In Classical Greece, young girls usually grew up in the care of a nurse (25.78. 26) and spent most of their time in the gynaikon, the women's quarters of the house located on an upper floor. The gynaikon was where mothers nursed their children and engaged in spinning thread and weaving (31.11.
The name Psyche means "soul" and "butterfly" in Greek and was commonly referred to as such in Roman mythology as well, though direct translation is Anima (Latin word for "soul"). She was born a mortal woman eventually granted immortality, with beauty that rivaled even Aphrodite, goddess of love.
Ancient Greece
As with Ancient Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks and Minoans generally depicted women with pale or white skin and men with dark brown or tanned skin.
It's a mathematical value called “phi”, represented by the Greek symbol φ, and equal to about 1.618.
In ancient Greece, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and beauty, was often portrayed with curves. A statue commonly thought to represent Aphrodite, called the Venus de Milo, depicts small breasts but is shaped with a twisted figure and elongated body, characteristic of that time period.
Female - Ancient Rome (753BC – 476AD)
“Wealthy ancient Roman women, had a long list of beauty ideals to check off: being slim but robust; high, round, youthful breasts; narrow shoulders; small waist; wide hips and thighs; long, hairless legs; rosy lips and cheeks.
The ancient Greeks believed that beauty consisted of three major components including symmetry, proportion, and har- mony (“Cultural Ideals of Facial Beauty”). However, even these Greek philosophers held differ- ent perspectives of what beauty encompassed.
The average Greek man may be looking for a companion, but he is certainly not looking for an equal partner. He wants a woman to support his image, make his coffee, cook his dinner, wash and iron his clothes, raise his children, and when necessary, massage his ego so that he still feels like a man.
Amrapali of Vaishali (Bihar) in ancient India was the most beautiful woman of the world. She was the best in the league of most beautiful women in the world likes of Cleopatra &Helen of Troy.
At a party, during which Hades sees Persephone for the first time, he remarks that she is even more beautiful than Aphrodite.
According to Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, the legendary 'face that launched a thousand ships” was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.
Helen of Troy, also known as beautiful Helen, was the most beautiful woman in Greece. She was the daughter of Zeus and sister of the Dioscuri.
Today's movies and paintings make her a blonde, but ancient Greek paintings show her as a brunette. Homer merely tells us she was “white-armed, long robed, and richly tressed,” leaving the rest up to our imagination.
Facial Structure
For example, Greeks generally would have developed cheekbones, rectangular eye sockets, and a rectangular face.
Why? Because their culture prized athletics as much as it did art or politics. The ancient Greeks believed that good physical strength was an important part of being a good citizen -- a person who could fight in battle or work on farms or help build roads and bridges without breaking down after half an hour's labor.
Ares, the god of war, was incredibly muscular and fit. This was because a fit and muscular body was seen as being the ideal physique for a warrior. So, next time you see a statue of Zeus or any other Greek god, remember that they were meant to be muscular and powerful.