From Arethusa to the Operating Room: The Evolution of the Cervico-Mental Angle From Classic Greece to Contemporary Aesthetic Surgery

The cervico-mental angle has emerged as a key focus in contemporary aesthetic surgery, symbolizing youth, vitality, and refined facial harmony. Yet classic ideals of beauty did not always favor this sharply defined contour. This article compares the cervico-mental angle across Classic Greek sculpture, Hellenistic art, and modern aesthetic standards. Classic works-particularly the goddesses of the 5th century BCE-presented fuller submental profiles that conveyed serenity, modesty, and divine distance. Hellenistic sculpture gradually introduced greater anatomic realism, including more visible submental curvature, reflecting an artistic shift toward individualized bodies and emotional expressiveness. Modern aesthetic surgery, by contrast, privileges precise cervico-mental definition through fat removal, platysma modification, and skeletal augmentation, projecting an ideal of athleticism and youth. By tracing these shifts, this essay argues that the cervico-mental angle is not merely an anatomic measurement but a cultural register of how societies envision beauty, virtue, age, and identity. For plastic surgeons, understanding these historical aesthetics enriches both technique and ethical awareness in contemporary neck contouring.