'Nakedness'

References to nakedness are sparse in Herodotean ethnography, despite his general interest in matters of sexuality and the treatment of women. Greek male athletic nudity is straightforwardly presented as a norm, albeit one that is shared by few non-Greek peoples, while female nakedness, taboo in most of the Greek world, is described as even more shameful for non-Greeks. In the tales of Gyges and Candaules’ wife (Book 1) and of Periander of Corinth (Book 5), a willingness to outrage propriety with regard to female nakedness is presented as indicative of the instability of tyrants and despots.