The body is the locus of human experience. Whatever we think or feel, it is all mediated corporeally, as our body responds to our immediate environment. However, the body also exists within culture. The way it is perceived and described, and therefore the ways in which we process and understand our experiences, is dependent upon wider patterns of behaviour and beliefs. Studying the body in antiquity thus offers a route into the lived experience of individuals in ancient Greece and Rome, and into the societies that they cumulatively constitute, from the perspectives of health and medicine, gender and sexuality, citizenship and status, philosophy and religion. It also presents an opportunity to explore the wide range of material from (for example) poetry to prose to personal letters to physicians’ reports, and from inscriptions to sculptures, that present the body for examination. This range can be extended by situating the Classical body in post-antique societies, shedding light on our own experiences, ideologies and practices.