The article analyses the role of the body as a symbol of political order and source of legitimacy. The first part is dedicated to this symbol in classical thought, in which, although it is articulated in different ways, it shows how the body has an explanatory and legitimizing function of the political order. A second part is dedicated to the thematization of the body in Post-modern thought and the transformation of the relationship between body and political order. With this transformation the ancient paradigm is overturned and the body is interpreted as crystallization of the social order. A third point briefly analyses some of the theses of New Realism in relation to the problems of the body.
