El nadador de Paestum

No one who has seen the impressive tomb of the swimmer in Paestum, near Naples, has been able to escape its influence. Discovered in 1968, its frescoes are the only surviving example of the great painting of early classical Greek art. The image of the ephebe in an elegant headboard has raised great puzzles for researchers: what is the meaning of the motif of life that springs from a tomb? Tonio Hölscher deciphers the multiple meaning of this unique work of art and, with a broad historical vision, presents central aspects of Greek antiquity: the culture of youth and its role in society, eroticism as a binding force for human communities, the importance of the athletic body and the beautiful appearance in social life, the concepts of the vital spaces of the sea and free nature as the counterworld of the high culture of urban life.