The Greeks and the human body

There is one culture in particular who was infatuated with the human body not only in daily life, but in art, and that would be the Greeks. They idolized the human body, and it was obvious. In Greece, they were proud to be nude no matter what they were doing and this lifestyle was reflected in their art. Nude sculptures were created of Gods (sometimes of Goddesses) and they all had ideal bodies. The Greeks idolized muscular men and soft women, and so this is what the sculptures portrayed. These well known Greek sculptures of perfect men with perfect bodies, were a symbol of the societies view of what they felt was attractive and ideal. Today's idea of beauty is distorted but still similar to the Greeks idea of beauty. The concept of what is beautiful and ideal changes over time, but in my personal opinion i think that the Greek's ideal male body type is still regarded as perfection in today's society. Meanwhile, i think that the female body type has changed drastically. In Greece, females were considered powerless along side the males, and that is why they were hardly portrayed in sculptures. If they were sculpted, they had more form and weight then would be on an ideal body type for a female today. Another aspect that has changed in recent times compared to Greece is how we perceive the nude sculptures. Today, nude bodies are looked at in a sexual way, which is not how the Greeks thought about the human body because they saw it as art. Also, the Female body is gawked at in todays society rather than the male body.