Introduction

Abstract

For Plato, head and face constitute the noblest portions of the body, privileged by the Gods, who Copied the shape of the universe and fastened the two divine orbits of the soul into a spherical body, which we now call the head, the divinest part of us which controls all the rest; they then put together the body as a whole to serve the head, knowing that it would be endowed with all the varieties of motion that were to be. And to prevent the head from rolling about on the earth, unable to get over or out of its many heights or hollows, they provided that the body should act as a convenient vehicle. It was therefore given height and grew four limbs which could bend and stretch, and with which it could take hold of things and support itself, and so by god’s contrivance move in all directions carrying on top of it the seat of our divinest and holiest part. That is the reason why we all have hands and legs. And as the gods hold that the front is more honourable and commanding than the back, they made us move, for the most part, forwards. So it was necessary to distinguish the front of man’s body and make it different from the back; and to do this they placed the face on this side of the sphere of the head, and fixed in it organs for the soul’s forethought, and arranged that this our natural front should take the lead.