But even if anthropological data were lacking, the numerous concordant testimonies of ancient texts would be more than sufficient to demonstrate that the upper layer of the population presented the Nordic type. Everywhere, whether common or rare in the population, this type is associated with social status, character and moral value. ... The Nordic type of Indo-European man is not a hypothesis: it is a fact of tradition. Now the decisive advantage of this type of testimony is that it is indisputable: we cannot imagine that the poets would have sung about tall, light-skinned, blond, blue-eyed men if their sponsors had been short, dark, if they had had dark skin and black eyes.
French linguist (1934–2023)
Jean Haudry (28 May 1934 – 23 May 2023) was a French linguist and Indo-Europeanist. He was the founder of the Institut d'Études Indo-Européennes ("Institute of Indo-European Studies") at the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 (France), along with Jean-Paul Allard and Jean Varenne.
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An integral part of the tradition, the preference for the Nordic physical type is seen both in the texts which frequently mentions light complexion and blond hair, as in fragment 1.51 et seq. by Alcman “the tuft of hair of my cousin Hagesichora shines like pure gold, illuminating her silver face”, and the blue eyes like those of Athena glaukōpis “with light blue eyes”. The statuary gives consistent and complementary information on the morphology. This ideal type is that of the upper layer of the Greek population of the time.