The cult of the body was a practice rooted in the society of Ancient Greece. a muscular figure, where the most prominent features are highlighted for a great physiognomy, worthy of any god. From the worship of Olympus to the present day, the cult of the body is a controversial topic, for those who defend the maximum physical reach that a human being can have, or the consequent counterproductive causes that exist in the popularity of certain aesthetic methods.
Both the female and male figures should represent eternal beauty and a harmonious balance between their parts.. In various stories of Greek mythology, the way in which the tribute to perfection, eternity, and body aesthetics had a fundamental role at a social level is prayed.
It is unquestionable to highlight the way in which the cult of the body was benefited by the athletic disciplines of this same society. In the oldest Greek representations, naked virility is a popular image, almost schematic, going beyond the levels of simple physical beauty, to be considered a representation of the individual character of the person.
Considering athletics as a fundamental part of the development of each citizen, The Greeks taught the care of the body as a duty and social value, which gave the person a high level of importance, righteousness, and admiration.
It was this fact, over time a simple harmonious factor managed to go beyond the sports field, so the Greeks ended up worshiping in all its splendor the beauty of a perfect body, of a silhouette that achieved the successful pattern of behavior imposed by themselves, in correspondence to the objectives achieved by the various deities that they also exalted, among them, the goddess Aphrodite, or the renowned fighter, Hercules.
Centuries later, this way of thinking, or of perceiving what is around, continues perennially, as if it were the first day that an athletic body was worshiped by a society. Perhaps to a lesser degree, but at present, the cult of the body continues to prevail, and the search for that divine perfection.
Unfortunately, with the popularity of certain practices, the same compelling need to be physically superior, it has brought with it an innumerable amount of counterproductive consequences for the same well-being. The specialist, Javier Mataix, affirms that «in today’s society, the modern obsession with the perfection of the body has caused an epidemic of new alterations and a growing demand for techniques for aesthetic purposes related to an illusory search for physical perfection.»
Imposed with the massive impact of mass media, digital, and specifically, advertisingthe cult of the body has demonstrated for decades, illusory figures, which appear to be synonymous with success, happiness, and health, but which according to Mataix «are a socio-cultural pressure, which is blindly educating the population to continue fighting for this prototype and thus achieve the approval of others.”