Part II. To the Greeks, as to this Greek athlete, excellence was a goal to be pursued in all aspects of life

To the Greeks, as to this Greek athlete, excellence was a goal to be pursued in all aspects of life. The attainment of perfection, of the complete realization of one’s potential, was called arete.

The buildings of the Athenian Acropolis are good examples of the achievement of arete in architecture. The plan of the basic temple form, which we see here, actually changed little over the 800-year period of Greek civilization. The Greeks were a traditional people who avoided change for its own sake. They simply refined this basic temple form. They looked for the best proportions of the various elements which together make up the temple.

Among the 300-odd temples left to us by 800 years of Greek civilization, many were smaller than the Parthenon and many were larger. But we have come to believe that the Parthenon best represents the Greek ideal of arete.

To attain excellence, the philosopher Aristotle said that the correct proportions of a building were those which respected the scale of man, and reached a mean between extremes. For example, the columns of some temples seem massive and crude compared with those of the Parthenon, while others seem tall and elegantly detailed. The Parthenon columns reflect the so-called Aristotelian mean between such extremes. Hence, this temple represents the culmination of Greek architecture: the perfection of balance, harmony, and proportion.

Because it was dedicated to the patron goddess of Athens, the Parthenon is a religious monument. Its architects had no practical requirements to consider, so they were free to make it symbolic of the Greek ideal. And since Athena was the goddess of wisdom, she would best be served by a temple that incorporated logic and reason.

What could be more logical than geometry? Hence, the Parthenon was based on the famous geometrical formula known as the Golden Section. It is derived by dividing any straight line AB into two equal parts. At point B, a perpendicular BD, equal to CB and AC, is erected. Then the hypotenuse is drawn, and DE is marked off, equal to BD, CB, and AC. This leaves segment AE. On the original line, segment AF which equals AE is marked off. The point F now divides the original line into two unequal parts: FB and AF. The relation of FB to AF is the Golden Section. The height and width of the Parthenon are in the same relation as FB to AF. This vitalized the architecture with a vivid rationality. It gives the Parthenon the look of majestic self-sufficiency.

But the Greeks were not slaves to geometry. To the contrary, the most subtle refinements of the Parthenon are minute variations of geometric form. Notice the slight upward curve toward the centre of these steps: for Greek art and Greek life depended on a balance of the rational and the humanistic.

This is a highly exaggerated sketch of some of the distortions of the building. These variations alter the otherwise straight lines and mathematical regularity of the building. The columns are not equally spaced, but are slightly closer together at the corners, like a pair of parentheses, enclosing and completing the building. The platform from which the building rises (and the roof above it) curve slightly, like a carpet tacked down at the four corners with a gust of wind raising it in the centre. The columns also bulge slightly in the centre, as if under the load that they bear. Perhaps these slight deviations from mathematical exactness were intended to suggest the swelling, flowing sense of life and nature. They also give a feeling of completion and unity. There is an illusion of the building being rooted firmly to the ground.

Standing next to the Parthenon is the Erechtheum. Its columns are of the Ionic order. Compare them with the simpler Doric columns of the Parthenon. The Ionic order, on the left, makes use of a tall, slender column in comparison with the shorter, stockier and more massive Doric column. And the Ionic capital has elaborate spirals, while the Doric capital is very plain.

The two buildings play off against one another. They complement each other, just as reason and emotion within each individual person complement each other. The massive, symmetrical and masculine Parthenon stands juxtaposed to the more elegant, graceful and complex Erechtheum. The most distinctive feature of the Erechtheum is the Porch of the Maidens. Here is a most vivid association of the human and the column.

It is also a recognition that pure geometry was not enough to fulfill man’s ideals, to achieve arete. Arete was also reflected in the Greeks’ idea of perfection in the human body. They admired not merely brute strength but grace and beauty in the body as well. Arete meant an avoidance of any excess.

The same reasonableness and orderliness we saw in the architecture also pervaded Greek sculpture. This statue of the Spearbearer, for example, has the same concern for proportion present in the abstract building form. The sculptor Polyclitus was noted for the rules of proportion which he applied to his idealized human forms. Like the Parthenon Polyclitus’ Spearbearer was also based upon the Golden section. The building and the man are totalities conceived of orderly, rational, and harmonious parts.

But Greek man was also sensitive to the natural rhythms of life. His sense of rhythm is found in the sculpture, which encircles the Parthenon in the frieze behind the columns. Although the rhythm is repetitious, there are subtle variations; just as in nature, things are never repeated exactly. The carved square panels above the columns also create a rhythm with the grooved squares between them. The lifelike details in the sculpture of this Golden Age further display the artist’s sense of naturalism. Notice the realistic bulging veins and rippling muscles of the horses. But this naturalism is always controlled by geometry. Geometry governs the even spacing and uniform positions of the figures. This rhythmic feeling compels the eye to follow their eternal procession. And the rhythm of the sculpture is reinforced by the rhythm of the columns. They blend and harmonize, achieving a perfect balance, or arete.

We have seen how the Greeks’ humanistic, or man-centered, worldview influenced all aspects of their life: religious, political, social and artistic. All aspects had profound interdependence, and only taken together do they expressively mirror the whole Greek man. Through their arts we can interpret the Ancient Greeks’ values, and their view of the world. But Greek glory does not come down to us merely by way of a few pieces of marble or bronze. It is still alive as an idea – the idea of emotional, idealistic, yet rational, man as the measure of all things.