Abstract
Naked truths are truths that are sometimes uncomfortably presented,
stripped of artifice or ornament, to be accepted at face value. Truths
concerning such fundamental aspects of human interrelations as gender
identity, desire, and power are far from transparent and natural, even in their
denuded and dismantled incarnations. This is especially so in the instance of
artistic creations and representations that serve the larger educational goals
of social and political ideology. Contemporary feminist approaches that
accentuate the centrality of gender and sexuality as core constructs in the
interpretation of past and present cultures have been voiced in academic
disciplines over the last several decades. Only recently, however, have these
critical methodologies been applied to the visual arts and material culture of
the classical Mediterranean world. While social and cultural anthropologists
have utilized feminist perspectives quite aggressively in the economic and
socio-political realms of their work, the potential usefulness of looking
inclusively and relationally at women and men as they are represented in
classical iconography, art, literary texts, and inscriptions has just begun to be
explored.