Greek Strive For Perfection
Essay by 24 • March 20, 2011 • 854 Words (4 Pages) • 2,360 Views
The Greeks strive for perfection
The Greeks have a long and lustrous history. The saying "we are all Greeks" by British poet Percy Bysshe Shellsy sums it all up and the influence of that perfection lives on today. The saying actually means that we are all influenced by the culture of the Greek people and the perfection that they strived for.
Greek Architecture
You can see the influence of the architecture in many cultures including the Roman Empire. The Roman buildings and art works all used some sort of Greek theme. The Greek way of building is still used today and mimicked by every culture since the fall the Grecian empire. We can see the influence of the Greek people in some of the most important buildings in America, the white house, the capital and many other major buildings the D.C area. The use of limestone and marble in the architecture allowed for some of them major buildings to survive till modern day times. The remains of Greek cities can be found not only in modern day Greece but in Italy, Sicily, and Turkey. The
The athletes
The Greek culture strove for perfection when it came to the athletes of the time. We hold a little sporting event every four years called the Olympics. The Olympics started back in 776 B.C.E. and where held for all the city and states of Greece. The games where held in Olympia. The games where so significant that during times of war there was a sacred truce declared for all could see the games in safety. The games where so important that the Greek people calculated time with the coming of the Olympics. There was a athlete that came to Sparta during the Olympic games and said to him that he could no longer compete in the games for fear he would loose to another state, and when Sparta heard this he went to the states people and told them of this, and the man was driven from the city with an angry mob. The Greek people thought the Olympics were a way to prove them selves to the gods.
Mathematics.
The quest for perfection had an impact on the world of mathematics as well. Some of the worlds most famous mathematicians come from the Greek empire. The mathematician Pythagoras was the first person that figured out that the planets all move in a single rotation and move together. There where many other famous mathematicians of the time and we still use most of the formulas and equations today. Most of the people considered to be astronomers you can say they where mathematicians first.
Everyday life
Most of the language we speak and words that we speak are all derived from Greek words. For instance the word technology comes from the Greek word technikos which means artistic professional. The units of measure we se today come from the Greek units of measure and also coin and the length of months and years all come from Greek society. The steam engine was first produced in ancient Greece and not perfected for many years. We can see that to strive
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