Barefoot Roman/Greek statues and their pinky toes

nisto · Jan 20, 2014

I went to the Glyptotek yesterday to get some cultural input. But I left with a question more than anything else: how come the pinky toes of the statues are so crooked? The Greek and Romans didn't wear shoes, and everything else on their feet seemed to resemble my feet now, after years of barefooting, more than my feet five years ago. They must have been barefoot alot. And yet the pinky toes on many of statues looked like this:

Does that mean that this is how pinky toes should look? Did they remodel the feet after shoe wearers later? How do you insert this image into this post?
I'm confused.

Sid · Jan 20, 2014

Since the statues are carved from rock, perhaps the sculptor purposely squeezed the toes together to reduce the chance of one of the toes breaking off. The only toe that is truly separate is the big toe. All of the others show syndactyly.

Or maybe they thought that slimmer feet looked better on statues?

paraganek · Jan 20, 2014

Here is he image:

Makes me curios too. A healthy pinky toe should definitely not look like that

but more like this:

nisto · Jan 21, 2014

Sid said:
Since the statues are carved from rock, perhaps the sculptor purposely squeezed the toes together to reduce the chance of one of the toes breaking off. The only toe that is truly separate is the big toe. All of the others show syndactyly.

Or maybe they thought that slimmer feet looked better on statues?

But the foot isn't that slim? It just has a crooked pinky toe. And if the purpose was to squeeze the toes together, wouldn't it be better to make alle the toes parallell and not stick out like that?

nisto · Jan 21, 2014

I've e-mailed the museum; perhaps they know. (The statues might be reconstructed?)

Barefoot TJ · Jan 21, 2014

I don't think it was made that way to keep the pinkie from being broken off. I don't think the artist would compromise on his creation.

nisto · Jan 21, 2014

Answer from the museum: it can't be because of their shoes/sandals, it's just they way the toes are... In Danish:

Jeg skal ærligt indrømme, at jeg ikke selv tidligere har bemærket de indadgående lilletæer.
Jeg snakkede med min kollega, som bestemt ikke mener det skyldes grækernes eller romernes sko. Begge har gået i sandaler, og romerne gik hvertfald også i lukkede sko, og støvler når de skulle i krig. Dog var det hele lavet af blødt læder, og ville næppe have kunne være med til at skubbe lilletåen indad. Det er sandsynligvis bare sådan fødderne ser ud.

I hope I am not alone in finding this answer, well, wrong?

Barefoot TJ · Jan 21, 2014

Do we know for sure that all pinkie toes on true barefooted people are straight? I read somewhere once that through evolution, human's pinkie toes are changing and shrinking away, supposedly because we never use them anymore. I guess eons ago, we must have used it more like a finger or something.

nisto · Jan 21, 2014

I've got the nerve to ask the highest authority, and this is what Daniel Lieberman answered:

We are in the process of writing a paper on shod versus unshod foot shape, and I can tell you that 5th and sometimes 4th hammer toes are fairly common among barefoot people who have never worn shoes. Bunions also occur in these populations, too. Not all foot problems can be attributed to shoes!

-- I stand corrected and will adjust my belief accordingly.

Barefoot TJ · Jan 21, 2014

nisto said:
...this is what Daniel Lieberman answered: Not all foot problems can be attributed to shoes!

But I'll wager that most of them can be.

Hobbit · Jan 22, 2014

Hello nisto,

nisto said:
I went to the Glyptotek yesterday to get some cultural input. But I left with a question more than anything else: how come the pinky toes of the statues are so crooked? The Greek and Romans didn't wear shoes

If the statue is made of marble it is quite likely that it is a roman copy (not necessarily a 100% exact copy) of a greek original, which was made in bronze (and during later history molten down for other uses).
Or the Romans did wear shoes (caligae and other models) - perhaps not all the time and certainly not everybody in every social class, but shoes and sandals were not uncommon, which would mean, that roman feet could very well have been deformed in some way or another.
The barefoot statues themselves are barefoot because of iconographic conventions - this doesn't mean that the population was always barefoot.

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