Short description:

Ancient dress and adornment have received significant consideration in recent scholarship, though strikingly, feet and footwear have featured relatively little in this discussion. This volume aims to rectify this imbalance through its fifteen chapters covering a wide range of aspects associated with feet and footwear in classical antiquity. 

Long description:

This edited volume groups research on the significance of ancient feet and footwear, much of which was presented, discussed and reviewed at the conference: Shoes, Slippers and Sandals: Feet and Footwear in Antiquity, held at Newcastle University and the Great North Museum from 29 June?1 July 2015.

Ancient dress and adornment have received significant consideration in recent scholarship, though, strikingly, feet and footwear have featured relatively little in this discussion. This volume aims to rectify this imbalance through its fifteen chapters covering a wide range of aspects associated with feet and footwear in classical antiquity. Contributions are grouped under four headings: ?Envisaging footwear?, ?Following footprints?, ?One from a pair? and ?Between representation and reality?, reflecting the broad range and interdisciplinary nature of the approaches undertaken.

"This innovative volume is a welcome addition to studies on ancient dress, an exciting field of growing importance. The editors have collected a number of excellent essays on the significance of feet and footwear in archaeological, art historical and literary contexts from ancient Greece and Rome, on such diverse topics as footwear at the symposium, shoemakers in ancient society, monosandalism, shoes on Attic vases, brooches in the shape of shoes from Roman Britain, and podiatric shoes from Vindolanda. A fresh look at the evidence for ancient shoes, this important new book will be invaluable for historians of clothing, art, and social history, as well as those interested in the history of dress more generally."

- Kelly Olson, University of Western Ontario, Canada

"The chapter bibliographies in this volume are a major contribution to the field, and the abundance of reference material (both material culture and literary works) will greatly enrich future studies ... [this volume is] informative, innovative, and competently done. Drawing upon the latest modern studies, and with preceptive use of ancient sources, these scholars offer numerous insights which invite their readers onto scholarly ground that has until recently been mostly untrodden."

- Daniel B. Levine, University of Arkansas, USA, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019

Table of Contents:

List of figures; List of Contributors; Abbreviations; Introduction Sadie Pickup and Sally Waite ? Surveying Shoes, Slippers and Sandals; Part 1: Envisaging Footwear; 1) Sally Waite and Emma Gooch ? Sandals on the Wall: The Symbolism of Footwear on Athenian Painted Pottery; 2) Valérie Toillon ? At the Symposium: Why Take Off Our Boots? The Significance of Boots Placed Underneath the Kline on Attic Red-Figure Vases (c. 480-450 BC); 3) Yael Young ? Donning Footwear: The Invention and Diffusion of an Iconographic Motif in Archaic Athens; 4) Christiaan Caspers ? Pant?i Kr?pides: Shoe-Talk from Homer to Herodas; Part 2: Following Footprints; 5) Sebastiano Molinelli ? Simon the Athenian: Archaeological, Sociological and Philosophical Remarks on a Philosopher Shoemaker; 6) Susanna Phillippo ? Stepping onto the Stage: Aeschylus? Oresteia and Tragic Footwear; 7) Andrew Parkin ? A Colossal Porphyry Foot; Part 3: One from a Pair; 8) Amy Smith ? The Left Foot Aryballos Wearing a Network Sandal; 9) Sue Blundell ? One Shoe Off and One Shoe On: The Motif of Monosandalism in Classical Greece; 10) Sadie Pickup ? A Slip and a Slap: Aphrodite and her Sandals; 11) Charlotte Chrétien ? Achilles? Discovery on Skyros: Status and Representation of the ?Monosandalos? in Roman Art; Part 4: Between Representation and Reality; 12) Annika Backe-Dahmen ? Sandals for the Living, Sandals for the Dead: Roman and Their Footwear; 13) Eva Christof ? The Footwear of the Antonine Monument from Ephesus; 14) Alex Croom ? A ?Shoe? Brooch from Roman Fort at South Shields; 15) Elizabeth M. Greene ?Metal Fittings on the Vindolanda Shoes: Footwear and Evidence for Podiatric Knowledge in the Roman World; Glossary; Index