20010515.01 The beauty of the Greek temple, with its entablature resting on symmetrical and well-proportioned columns, may be explained in part by the circumstance that the entablature with its overlying roof is a geometric presentation of the weight of the structure, while the columns are geometric presentations of the physical forces which lift that weight high above the ground. Thus the geometry of the columns and the entablature they support reveals the physical forces entailed in the building's structure. When we look at a Greek temple we are aware of these relationships, aware of them not explicitly but unconsciously, intuitively. That is why it seems to us so beautiful. The Greek word for truth is "aletheia", which means "not to escape notice", or "not unnoticed", evident, clear, explicit. One may say that in the light of this definition of truth Greek temples are beautiful because they are truthful, in the sense the physical forces which support the structure do not "escape notice", are evident, clear, explicit in the columns. It is this architectual truth which has enchanted builders for thousands of years, and which has made the history of architecture the history of one Greek revival after another. * * * * *

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