Synthesis Question #2
In looking at Greek Architecture, we are able to discover many things
about Greek society and life during time periods such as the Athenian
Golden Age (480-404 B.C.). The greatest lasting examples of Greek
architecture from this time period are religious temples in the Doric
and Ionian style. This tells us that the Greeks really took religion
seriously, and held it in very high esteem. For example, the
Parthenon in the acropolis at Athens was adorned with beautiful woods
and precious metals, showing us just how important religion was.
Another thing that Greek architecture from this period tells us about
Greek society is that they had a strong understanding of mathematics.
The architecture of this time period was marked by symmetry, with
special attention to the straightness of lines. Shapes such as
rectangles, squares and triangles were used often, and these could
only be achieved through careful measurements and an understanding of
the mathematical definitions of these shapes. One last thing that we
can tell about ancient Greek society from their architecture is that
they took a great deal of pride in their attention to deal. The many
Greek temples and amphitheaters left over from this time period often
have extremely intricate frescoes adorning them. They are often built
to exact specifications that are easily measured. This tells us that
aesthetics and everything being orderly probably meant a great deal to
the ancient Greeks. We can see this attention to deal in other forms
of art such as literature, where we see that topics and human
creations were often cataloged into distinct groups, and made to
follow strict boundaries of order that were often well reasoned by the
great philosophers of the time.
Good job on the informative post! It's very interesting to see just how much one can learn about Greek society just by looking at the architecture of the time. We agree that the importance of religion is clearly reflected in the care and detailing put into the temples at the time. Another reason why they might have paid so much attention to the detailing is perhaps they were afraid that the gods would be angry if they didn't make the temples impressive. They probably thought that the gods would think the people were not being attentive enough to them if they skimped on the designs. Because buildings nowadays are all generally symmetrical, it is hard for us to realize how much work is put into making sure all the measurements are accurate. The fact that Greeks were able to construct such building prove how advanced they were in terms of math. Your observation on tying together pride in one’s work and the amount of detailing in Greek architecture was very insightful. Clearly, if a person holds pride for what he or she does, they would put as much effort as possible into their product in order to enhance it. All in all, we really enjoyed your post. However, one thing we would like to point out that math and science are different subjects and the question asked for you to relate your topic to science. Otherwise, great work and we hope to see more soon!
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