**2.6. The spiritual beauty of the human body: sanctuary of compassionate soulfulness and icon of intimate aesthetics**

It was Socrates who described the body and its movements as spiritual indications of the 'workings of the soul' [49]. The idealisation of the beauty of the human body was in Greek art closely related to the interplay between the way feelings affect the body in action and represent the 'workings of the soul'. Due to the fame of Pheidias, the sculptor who Pericles entrusted to supervise the decoration of temples (480 BC), the classic approach to represent the human body in any position or movement reflected 'the inner life of the figures' [50].

The human body is not an idol of lust but an icon of soulful aesthetics and compassionate intimacy. The human body is thus designed to create intimate spaces of human encounter, wherein the 'other' is exposed to unconditional love, compassionate caring—caring that seeks to overcome the fear for rejection and loss.

Compassionate intimacy should enhance humane authenticity, as well as sustainable friendship and an ethos of non-discriminatory equality and unconditional acceptance. The notion of compassionate intimacy is an attempt to emphasise and introduce images of companionship, trustful partner, faithful colleague and caring nurturer (**Figure 10**).

**Figure 10.** Plaster copy in of the Royal Cast Collection, Copenhagen. Permission from museum; photo D.J. Louw. The child Dionysus in the arms of a Sicilian found in 1594 in Greece, fourth century BC. I was totally overwhelmed by the combination between male vigour and strength combined with sensitivity and caring embracement. The genitals are an inherent part of the intimate space of care created by the 'patriarchal figure'. One can say that the sculpture portrays 'sacred phallicism' healed by compassionate intimacy. The penis nurtures and cannot destroy; the penis as an icon of intimacy and faithful commitment. The macho male can become indeed an idol of a caring and compassionate human being beyond the boundaries of merely gender differentiation (either male or female).
