Monday, March 3, 2008

What Greek beliefs about the human body are continued to this day?

The Greeks believed the human body was a temple. Their own God's and Goddess' were humanized. Even their sculpture and building structures showed of the human body as a iconic obsession. They were very process oriented. They had everything down to an exact science. Even their temples were mathematically structured so they were all basically the same. In today's society we don't necessarily have the same ideals pertaining to our architecture, but we do share some of the same obsessions about the human body. We still value the rough and tough look of a boxer or body builder. Even the way the Greeks draped clothing on their statues is in some way shown today. Society today has that value of seductiveness in movies, magazines, and TV. The fact that they valued the human body so much is even carried on today. Beauty is a prized possession by some and some people go to great lengths to become as beautiful or more than the next person. Their statues that depict movement and grace are amazing. Sculptures today are still created with that same attention to the detail of the human body. The Greeks also paid close attention to detail in their sculptures and artworks. The fine lines of muscle tone and hair and facial expressions were awesome. As a whole, the art society of today still possesses that yearning for detail. I think if it weren't for the Greek's appreciation of they human body and it's flow and movement, our society today would not have the same appreciation for it today. Sports figures and entertainers today owe their jobs to the Greeks. If they hadn't been so obsessed with the preciseness, beauty and grace of the human body, it is highly possible that today's society may not have been so enamored with it either. Whatever the reason for their precise and exact calculations for architecture and sculpture and paintings is unknown. However, the art world owes the ancient Greeks a great deal of appreciation.

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