Bronze sculpture of a Seleucid prince, perhaps Atalan II of Pergamum. Greek art from the Hellenistic period (2nd and 3rd centuries BC) Achilles in the court of King Licomedes (detail), Athenian art (c.240 AD). Borghese Collection, Louvre Museum (Paris). The classic heroic nude is a concept of classical culture used to refer to the use of nudity in a classical sculpture to indicate that a seemingly human and deadly sculpture is actually a hero or a demigod. This convention began in the Archaic Era and in Ancient Greece and was later adopted by Hellenistic and Roman sculpture. This concept is applied indistinctly for women and for men, with women sometimes represented as Venus or other goddesses. As a concept, it has been modified since its creation to refer to other nudes now recognized in classical sculpture (for example, the pathetic nude of brave defeated barbarian enemies, such as the dying Galata).
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