Saturday, February 28, 2009

Greek beliefs cause us to try to be perfect

The Greeks believed that the gods assumed human form and that they were frail like all humans. They believed that humanity was what mattered and humans were the “measure of all things” according to our book. By this definition, most of their statues and artwork should have been perfection. They were developing into not only purists but perfectionists in their pursuits.

Their statues of males in the nude were idealized replicas’ of the male form. These may have been very imposing to the Greeks with their perfection. I would think that most men even in their time would not have looked as perfect. After all, even the most toned athletes of our day can’t be as muscular as depicted without having used steroids. It is true that they would have been dedicated to producing the perfection as displayed. However, I don’t believe that most would have been able to obtain it.

The female form was normally shown as clothed. Only on occasion was one shown nude. Again, these are shown as perfection in form. The Greeks were obsessed with that perfection. The Greeks developed a formula for the perfect statue that was thought to be the most beautiful in the world.

Even today, we look to obtain perfection in our human form. We exercise, have plastic surgery, and take drugs to make us looks like the perfect human. We have inherited from the Greeks the desire to be perfect. Whether we obtain that perfection is another matter. We try to look like models and super athletes, but only a very few can obtain it. They are the people that we look up to such as movie stars, models and athletes as the highest form of perfection. Why can’t we just accept ourselves for whom we are?

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