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Why does classical architecture (Greco-Roman) have such a profound influence on modern architecture?

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1. Well, there are plenty of works of modern architecture in which no such influence is evident. However, Greek and Roman architecture was influential for centuries -- particularly from the Renaissance onwards -- largely because of what it was thought to represent: civic and domestic harmony and stability, a harking back to the eras of Greek democracy and Roman republicanism, certain intellectual concepts based on the presumed superiority and importance of classical philosophy and aesthetics, etc. In other words, the symbolism of these buildings mattered. But modernist architects moved away from the Greco-Roman model, and many post-modern architects have shattered it utterly, while others have employed the model but have subverted it in various creative and ironic ways.