Sight and the Ancient Senses (The Senses in Antiquity)

Book Details

• Author: Squire, Michael

• Publisher: Routledge

• Language: English

• Edition: 1

• ISBN: 9781844658664

• Pages: 322

• Cover: Paperback

• Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches

📝 About the Book

Sight and the Ancient Senses offers a fascinating and in-depth exploration of how vision was conceptualized and interpreted in the classical world. This groundbreaking volume serves as the first comprehensive introduction to the role of sight in the history, literature, visual culture, and philosophy of Greek and Roman antiquity. Tracing the evolution of ancient theories of seeing, it examines how visual perception was woven into broader cultural, intellectual, and social frameworks from Archaic Greece to late antiquity.

The book brings together a range of interdisciplinary voices, offering rich insights into how sight intersected with the other senses in Greco-Roman thought. Through specially commissioned thematic chapters, contributors reveal how ancient philosophies of vision shaped disciplines such as poetry, rhetoric, science, and the visual arts. Notably, the collection illustrates the enduring legacy of these early theories on the development of Western sensory thinking through the ages.

Richly illustrated, including a dedicated section of color plates, this volume is an indispensable resource for scholars, researchers, and students interested in classical studies, sensory history, and the philosophical traditions of sight. Sight and the Ancient Senses is not just a historical account—it’s a journey into how ancient civilizations saw their world and, in doing so, shaped how we continue to perceive ours.