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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