Robert Garland, The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and
Disability in the Greco-Roman World. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1995. Pp. xviii + 222. $39.95. ISBN 0-8014-3144-1.
Reviewed by Robert J. Brophy, Syracuse, NY. This is an
interesting, wide-ranging study of disabled and deformed people
in the Ancient World. As the title implies, it looks primarily
at how society -- "the Beholder" -- viewed the disabled, their
legal, social and economic status, more than how the disabled
viewed themselves. We have almost no evidence for the latter,
and a wide range of sources, legal, medical, literary, visual
arts, for the former. This study joins many varied and
interesting specific instances, from archaic poetry to the Roman
imperial "fetish" for dwarves, hunchbacks, etc., at their
banquets. It offers many grotesque images on pottery and vase
painting. The sixty-four plates vividly illustrate Greek and
Roman fascination with deformed as well as idealized humanity.
Garland's Preface admits he built his "investigation