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.
