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How does Classical Greek Architecture reflect their view of the cosmos (universe) and spiritual realm?
Wow you fool, I typed my question and this is what Yahoo put it in. Calm the hell down. Sorry a whole 2 minutes of your precious life was wasted.
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- There is a book that discusses this topic called "The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture". The author is a Professor at Yale named George Hersey. According to him Greek architecture is linked to sacrificial ritual and myth. For example, long before the Greeks build temples they worshiped in groves of trees, believing that trees contained Gods and the Greeks carried out sacrifices in front of these trees. Later when temples were built the columns assumed the stylized form of a tree and they put carvings and such at the top that represented foliage for the tree. There are many cases of Greek temples being built around a tree or trees. Anyway, it requires a lot more detail and knowledge than I possess but maybe you can find the book on the internet (MIT Press) or just more information. I usually answer physics and math but I wander around the categories at times since I know history and other things as well. Sometimes questions might appear to be in the wrong place but that is only due to ignorance on the part of the person who makes that judgement.For example, if you asked a question about Mithras, a God from Asia Minor that was adopted by the Romans, astronomy would be an OK place to ask the question since someone wrote a book explaining the symbology associated with the religion and his explanation is purely astronomical. I can't think of the name of the book right off hand but it is a very interesting read if you can find it.
