Greek footwear and the dating of sculpture /

This book, the first modern study of ancient Greek shoes, not only elucidates the changing modes in footwear for men and women from Archaic to Hellenistic times, but attempts to employ this pattern as a means for dating sculptural works that represent shod feet. The primary evidence comes only from works of unquestioned authenticity, be they sculptural or ceramic, and not from copies of the Roman period with their possibility of anachronistic contamination. The evidence is rigorously interpreted and the resulting analysis is apt to stand for a long time as the authoritative reference work on what Ancient Greeks wore on their feet and when they wore them. The text is illustrated with clear photographs and explanatory line drawings of sufficiently legible detail as to permit a modern shoemaker to reproduce an ancient Greek shoe. This highly technical work does not attempt to offer a broad sociological or aesthetic interpretation of changes in patterns of footwear; rather, it presents a meticulous compilation of material for the history of costume and is of potentially great value to a contemporary designer of footwear. Appendix 3, ``Classical Greek Footwear Terms,'' will be of interest to all classical philologists. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.-A. Frazer, Columbia University