The Grecian bend was a term applied first to a stooped postureOED Online. June 2013. Oxford University Press. 'Grecian bend (noun): an affected carriage of the body, in which it is bent forward from the hips' which became fashionable c. 1820,The Times (London, England), 3 January 1820, p. 3'...those young ladies who have contracted that fashionable stoop, denominated the "Grecian bend"!' named after the gracefully-inclined figures seen in the art of ancient Greece. It was also the name of a dance move introduced to polite society in America just before the American Civil War. The "bend" was considered very daring at the time.America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present (Music in American Life) by Gilbert Chase - Nov 1992
The stoop or the silhouette created by the fashion in women's dress for corsets, crinolettes and bustles by 1869 was also called the Grecian bend. Victoria & Albert Museum website - Accessed 26 August 2009Daily Telegraph 1 September 1869 Contemporary illustrations often show a woman with a large bustle and a very small parasol, bending forward. The Grecian bend imitates the Lordosis behavior in many animals.
The term was also given to those who suffered from decompression sickness, or "the bends", due to working in caissons during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The name was given because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in the same manner as the then popular "Grecian bend" fashion.Kumar V., Abbas A., Fausto N. (2005), Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 7th ed. Elsevier Inc.
Appearance in popular music There were many songs published with "Grecian Bend" in their titles. The term "Grecian bend" appears in the song "The Garden Where The Praties Grow" by Johnny Patterson:
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