Nudity In Western History

Doing Farm work Naked Would Make Your Fields Flourish.

Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet with a few interesting opinions about how to conduct yourself while farming, including the apparent belief that you should inspire fruitfulness in your crop by doing all the hard work without any clothes on. "Sow naked, and plough naked, and harvest naked," he recommends, "if you wish to bring in all Demeter's fruits in due season." Demeter was the goddess of seasons and harvests, and why exactly she'd be fond of a bunch of naked farmers running around doing their work without proper health and safety regulation clothing remains unclear; but his advice is pretty unequivocal. It wasn't just a poet being fanciful, either; we have artefacts from ancient Greece devoted to Demeter in which men are shown ploughing without a stitch.
Sources: Polytheism and Society at Athens. The Ancient Greeks: Their Lives and Their World

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RE:Nudity In Western History

That's really interesting and one I have not come across before.

Thanks for sharing that piece of history / mythology.

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RE:Nudity In Western History

Farmers are the most conservative and traditional of all segments of society as fundamentally plants don't change the way they grow much over generations. Working the fields naked was also a form of conservatism rather than a hippie type expression of freedom we'd consider it today. In an age when clothes were made from the raw plants and not tailored and washing machines and an plentiful water didn't exist, it makes perfect sense to work naked, especially if there is nothing shameful about it. When Jesus called out fisherman to follow him as disciples, they were also naked, as was the custom back then.
In any case, I like the idea of getting a farmers tan of antiquity!

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RE:Nudity In Western History

Doing Farm work Naked Would Make Your Fields Flourish.

"a bunch of naked farmers running around doing their work without proper health and safety regulation clothing remains unclear"

What is this "running around" that any body who is naked is accused of doing? Clothed people are practically never described that way unless they are actually running around. I'm also curious as to what proper health and safety regulation clothing is for farming? Must you wear bib overalls and a straw hat? But back i ancient Greece? I think there are none.

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RE:Nudity In Western History

Doing Farm work Naked Would Make Your Fields Flourish.Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet with a few interesting opinions about how to conduct yourself while farming, including the apparent belief that you should inspire fruitfulness in your crop by doing all the hard work without any clothes on. "Sow naked, and plough naked, and harvest naked," he recommends, "if you wish to bring in all Demeter's fruits in due season." Demeter was the goddess of seasons and harvests, and why exactly she'd be fond of a bunch of naked farmers running around doing their work without proper health and safety regulation clothing remains unclear; but his advice is pretty unequivocal. It wasn't just a poet being fanciful, either; we have artefacts from ancient Greece devoted to Demeter in which men are shown ploughing without a stitch.Sources: Polytheism and Society at Athens. The Ancient Greeks: Their Lives and Their World

Nudity and in particular male nudity was associated with the divine. Athletics were conducted nude. Much leisure activity was nude. Certain religious rites were nude. And plowing is preparing earth for seed. The penis and plow are unified concepts. Hiding the divine plow while using the artificial one was likely to anger the gods. Both semen and menstrual blood have blessed agriculture since it began. Clothes also get under plow and beast... and drag man under too.

I believe in nude gardening wholeheartedly. I would do it for a living if I could.

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