Beauty in Greece.

Aspects of origins and developments

Dialog and dialectics in ancient philosophy

Alicia Montemayor Garca

The definition of Beauty as a whole made by parts appears on Classical Greece. Although we also find it in Aristotle defined as symmetra, it has a longer development than what history of philosophy considers, which is of great importance for Aesthetics. I propose that the development of the concept of Beauty as symmetra starts form the work of Polyclitus of Argos to later appear repeatedly shading all previous idea of Beauty, which does not imply that previous conceptions about it have disappeared. The present paper asks on the definitions of Beauty previous to the Classical period and the way in which they relate to artists practice and theoretical thinking.

It will seem that ancient Greeks are a model to be followed and that their way of doing and thinking things are fundament and origin of our way of doing and thinking. Nonetheless, despite this vision presents us the Greeks as if it were our same face we must accept that they represent someone else that we must know in order to know ourselves. Distant and close, Greeks present themselves as the beginning while at the same time they refer us to a world fundamentally different which we must understand in its difference. It is generally accepted that theories on Beauty appear in the fifth century b. C together with the arising of specialized knowledges, although we do not find the first definition that joins the concept of Beauty to that of symmetra within philosophical or literary milieus as it is enunciated for the first time in the treatise named Canon of Polyclitus of Argos, a sculptor active in the fifth century b. C. Unfortunately the treatise is lost, therefore we must infer Polyclitus intention from the fragments found n the texts of other authors. For instance, Galen mentions beauty lies not in the proportion of elements of the constituting elements but in the proportionality of parts.1 This affirmation indicates a change in front of the archaic
Galen, de placitis Hipocratis et Platonis, V 448-449 Kuhn. Beauty lies, not in the proportion of constituting elements but in the proportionality of parts, as between a finger and another finger, and between all fingers and the metacarpus, between the carpus and the forearm and between the forearm and the arm, actually between all parts among themselves, as it is written in Polyclitus Canon. To teach us the whole proportion on the body Polyclitus based his theory in one work, making the statue of a man according to the principles of his treatise and he called the statue, as well as the treatise, Canon.
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sculpture tradition, which was also concerned on proportion problems but in a completely different manner. Polyclitus idea points to the figure as a whole, as an organism, in this sense the fragment is focused particularly on the problem of the human body proportions as they are given between the carpus and the forearm and between the forearm and the arm.2 What really concerns the author is the proportion of all parts among themselves3 and with the whole, in this sense we may understand symmetra as the proportionality of the parts. As Plutarch says: beauty is the result of a multiplicity of calculated elements that contribute to a same happy ending, according to the requirement of a certain fairness of proportions.4 This definition depends on this symmetra that, defined in a general way within the Canons context, We may understand it as the keeping in of the parts with the whole and of these among themselves. Although we cannot deny that the enunciation of this Canon arises within the visual arts context, giving the artists a theoretical support for the new developments in sculpture, we must remember that, just like technical treatises, it was not only a theoretical text, but that it also prescribed rules for practise, so that this concept although abstract is going to define in a concrete way and in practice the entire way of the composition of the work, aimed to build a whole made of parts that work the way living organisms do. This idea, which at the beginning only is applied to the body and then to sculpture and painting, may as well be applied to poetry, rhetorics and philosophy. Thus, the idea of beauty as symmetra goes from sculpture to writing for, as Plato says on Phaedrus, all discourse must be composed as a living being, with its own body [] and its parts written in such a way that they correspond between themselves and with the whole.5 Nonetheless the term used by Plato to refer to this organicism, which results in a well-bonded and beautiful work, is not symmetra but syostasi. This change is significant for Plato turns this proportionality in part of a theory that explains not only the relation between the parts and the whole but also the relation between the whole reality as a reflection of the world of ideas and particularly the idea of Good,6 where symmetra is no longer the fundamental quality but one among others that are
Galen, idem. Galen, idem. 4 Plutarch, Moralia. De audiendo, XIII 45c. 5 Plato, Phaedrus, 264c. 6 Lpez Eire, A., 2001, p. 235.
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needed to achieve, as Plato himself says in Gorgias () that the whole results in a well assembled object, and therefore ordered and embellished.7 This is because syostasi does not refer only to the wholes proportionality but to the act of composing itself; therefore we can translate the term the term as framework, assembling or joint, which implies the works limitation and organic character. This theory is fundamentally literary, although Plato himself mistrusts poetry. This is one of the reasons why he tries to change the previous patterns with which poetry was evaluated and emphasizes on its correction and amendment rather on divine inspiration. Educational function of poetry in Greek paidea causes that the comprehension of what the poets say and the way they say it becomes the most important fact.8 According to Plato poetry imitates with words something that at the same time is a reflection of the ideas and, although in gnoseological terms it is distant form the truth, because of its construction it must assume the same form as nature, which is the organic form. The whole must be ordered, well weaved and proportioned. The idea that the discourse must resemble a living being, with a well-built body, with all its parts in its place and proportion,9 includes the concept of symmetra and makes it part of a broader theory which is not mere speculation but that gets into the sphere of tchne, as when Socrates tells Phaedrus how a speech is to be done and whom to address it he is not only analyzing but also prescribing. The work must have order, symmetra, and an organic character, only then it will be beautiful, nonetheless Plato does not tell us how, as his interest is not focused in the tchnai even when the basis of classicist aesthetics are already settled. Coherence and verisimilitude necessaries for a work to be well weaved will be developed by Aristotle. The need of unit present in the Poetics owes to the platonic philosophy and to the theory developed by Polyclitus.10
Plato, Gorgias, 503 e. I follow A. Lpez Eires translation in op. cit., p. 236. The oral character of Greek culture nonetheless marks these criteria, since the rules and norms that these means follows are fundamentally different from the ones that the poets who express by means of writing will follow. 9 Plato, Phaedrus, 264 c. But I think that you will consider that all discourse must be composed as a living being, in such a way that it is not acephalic, nor its feet are missing, but that it has middle and extremes, and that when writing it al parts combine among themselves with the whole. 10 We must point out that in this case, although the theory is applicable to visual arts and it was for a long time, the prescriptions that work within the limits of poetry and rhetoric do not work the same way in sculpture and painting. To explain with words is, as Cenino Cenninni said at the end of the fifteenth century, as leaning without a teacher, it does not matter how many books one may read nor how many time does one dedicate to the subject, the effort will result fruitless. The same idea is expressed in the Hippocratic treatises, for the same way medical texts were used as a whole with technical practice to carry out a surgery, Polyclitus not only wrote that beauty resides in the proportionality of parts but that
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4 We know that beauty consists on the relation between the whole and the parts,

but symmetra or the organic construction were not the only ways the Greeks used to explain the obtaining of beauty. For instance, in the Encomium to Helen Gorgias uses a completely different form to express the relation by implying the creation of a body from many parts;11 Xenophon too, in Memorabilia, explains that as it is not easy to find a man without flaws. It is looked for to gather from many what is much beautiful of each in order to compose totally beautiful bodies.12 This tradition of gathering beautiful parts to obtain a whole of greater beauty is linked to an older tradition that entails excellence in the craftsmanship, where forms and colours are presented as a spectacle and delight to the view. The other way of obtaining beauty that does not use symmetra, that dos not think of the whole as an organism is not confined to the realm of visual arts; we find it not only in sixth and fifth century b. C literature but long time before, as we may notice in many descriptions of objects in the Iliad, such as Nestors cup or Achilles shield. The emphasis is not placed on a detailed description of the whole but in the marvellous details of the parts the silver nails, the enamelled legs and the hundred fringe belts, where details are so important that on the description of Achilles shield, for instance, the total shape of the shield the whole is the least relevant. We may consider that once the notion of symmetra and then that of organism invaded artistic theory and practice this way of understanding beauty was rejected, as will show the artistic development of sculpture and painting of the fifth century b.C. as well as Polyclitus Canon, Platos philosophy and later that of Aristotle. This is not so, both forms continued to coexist not separately but in a peculiar mixture in which details are as important as the whole. It is hard to see how these two different ways of conceiving composition and efficiency of the finished work lived together if it were not by the few examples of the great Greek bronze statuary that are still conserved. Sculptures had incrustations, patinas of different colours and they were also ornamented with dresses and jewels. White marbles of Italys Renaissance are not the best example of how the framework,
the rules and standards are in his own work for those who want to follow them. For the relation between experience and the treatises in the Hippocratic corpus cf. Dean-Jones, L., Literacy and the Charlatan in ancient Greek Medicine in Yunis, H. (ed.), 2003, pp. 108-121. 11 Gorgias, Helen, On the other hand painters, when from many colours and bodies create an only body and figure, try to make sure that they delight the sight () 12 Xenophon, Memorabilia, III, 10, 2.

the structure of a Greek sculpture was made, in which two traditions were mixed with no violence at all. This is why I consider it necessary to ask if this idea of beauty as proportionality was born like Athena from Zeus head as if before the half of the fifth century b. C there has not been any rules or standards that define it before it was subject of philosophical reflection. From this idea it is necessary that we ask ourselves if there were other different conceptions of beauty and, if this is the case, who did they interest to, on whom or on what did they exercise their domain, and if there is evidence that shows us this situation. On the first place, the conception of beauty that lies in the relation between the whole and the parts, ruled by the idea of proportionality developed by Polyclitus, is the one that we usually find as the classical definition of beauty13 where order, clarity and distinction of the parts are necessary to build a harmonious whole, which is the object of the creator while creating his work.14 Nonetheless, the conception of classical beauty cannot be the starting point and origin of all conceptions of beauty, as they themselves must have had a similar development, for before the fifth century b. C we have conceptions and definitions of beauty that are not part of the classical definition, therefore we need to go back in time and search these discourses that talk about it in order to find out if there was an alternative or different form to this whole of rules that, as we have seen, constitute the so called classical beauty. This dating back in time implies that we must not look out in the first half of the fifth century but much earlier, therefore the kind of texts we will find necessarily are, because of their nature and function, far from the treatise that tries to explain a notion that is interested in a series of particular phenomena and that opposes to an inherited knowledge that argues with and relates to other similar texts. It is known that there is no notice of texts that deal explicitly with beauty or treatises on poetical or plastic composition before the half of the fifth century b.C., therefore a study on this subject should be of a heterogeneous nature, as it should take in account poets but also historians and rhetors as well as consider vocabulary forms applied to cultic and votive
The Word classic used this way involves a certain ambiguity. For Gombrich, in Norma y forma in Gombrich, 1984, p. 214, classic is a matchless solution, liable to be repeated but not overcome, while for Pollit 1972, p. 1 When we speak of a classic example of something, or of a classical phase () we use words qualitatively to express recognition of a standard of perfection within a particular genre () or that takes into account that The adjective classicus thus came to mean of or pertaining to class in a general way, but most often is referred to things associated with the upper classes. 14 Gombrich, E. H., La Madonna della Sedia de Rafael in Gombrich, 1984, p. 157.
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sculpture. I consider that the ideas on this kind of beauty did not disappear with the introduction of the concept of the harmonious whole, likewise, that it is necessary and desirable to show texts and works that show this concept, as I do not think that there was an evolution on the notion I present but a series of juxtapositions, coexistences and correlations on the works of poets, philosophers, rhetors, painters and sculptors. This study on the concepts of beauty previous to the idea of proportionality becomes necessary to understand the concept in its difference. At the espousals of Peleus and Thetis Eride the discord, who has not been invited to the wedding, threw the famous golden apple with the inscription To the most beautiful. We know what this gave place to and that it was not out of Zeus plan that the war of Troy would begin with a beauty contest as well as that his object was the rescue of the most beautiful woman. Thus, it must not surprise us that within the Iliad we find numerous mentions on beauty, heroes, maidens and gods. Homer describes us wonderful objects and places, like how men for short moments resemble the immortals or shine with the splendour of the sun. The question is if, from epithets, similes and descriptions we can find something similar to a definition of beauty, and if this is found only in Homer, or if we can also find it other authors. We must also ask ourselves if this definition has some relation to the structure and the style of the texts in which it appears or if it simply applies to descriptions of objects without having any consequences on the composition of the text in its whole.15
This sample classifies the content not the form. On the first place beautiful objects can be new or used, made from more less precious materials; on the second, as regards the subjects, we take into account those who manufacture the objects as well as men and women, whether in their natural aspect or when they are touched by a god. This classification separates subjects from objects not because these keep their beauty forever, but because human beauty is less constant and temporary. For beautiful objects in general cf. Homer, Ilias, II 447-449, IV 132-133, V 727-731, VIII 191-193, XI 38-40, XVIII 561-177 and XXIV 228-234; for new objects cf. Homer, op. cit., II 42-43, IX 121-124 and XXIII 267-270. In the case of men that manufacture these objects cf. Homer op. cit., V 60-61 and XII 294-295; for beauty on men and women cf. Homer op. cit., II 391-394, XIII 429-432, XX 331-335, XXI 107-109, XXII 71 -76, and Homer, Odyssey, I 200-240, II 10-20, III 460-470 and IV 120-130. There is a difference between the martial beauty of the warrior and that of a woman; in this case the passage in Ilias II 391-394 that describes the feminine beauty of Paris is opposed to that of XXII 71-76 which describes the fallen warrior. Lastly, objects and subjects that shine whether by the material which they are made with, by being anointed with oil or having light of their own. The list indicates a tendency to understand shining as a characteristic of beautiful objects, a reflex of the warriors qualities and a quality linked to the divine, cf. Homer, Ilias, III 419, IV 226, V 4-7, VI 293-295, X 75-76, XIII 242-245, XIV 175-185, XIX 15-17, 371-374, 381-382 and Homer, Odyssey, IV 40-50. I believe there is a search in Homeric vocabulary of adjectives like ambrsios and nectreos that takes in the meaning of refulgent, that will be the next step in an investigation focused only in Homer. On the other side, shining is also related to the blonde hair of Iliads heroes, like Achilles, cf. Homer Ilias, II 642; III 284, 434; IV, 183, 210; V 500; X 240; XI 125, 740; XVII 6, 18, 113, 124, 673, 684 and XXIII 141, 293, 401, 438. Objects that wonder are usually divinely manufactured objects, cf. Homer op. cit., V 722-726, X 436-441, XVIII 81-86, 372-377, 544549, Homer, Odyssey, VI 306, VII 45 and VIII 366. As regards Hesiod I have taken the passage of
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7 From a first classification we may say that there are a kind of enunciations that

are not isolated mentions but that they repeat successively through the whole text in different contexts. I must say in the first place that these vary from the Iliad to the Odyssey, as there is a change of milieus, situations and characters; for example, female figures in the Odyssey become more important and the places by which pass Odysseus and Telemachus become necessary. We may also affirm that we do not find in them the idea of organic whole, although this does not exclude the idea of the whole, as the use of epithets and similes is not arbitrary, its use is not disordered or hazardous, it is not a simple accumulation of words or a senseless repetition. In the formulas hollow ships, glittering spear, strong pike, solid cuirass or beautiful cheeks, Homer shows us things from the point of view the vital and necessary part, which does not require a description of the general form to put the object before our eyes but that parts from what is more characteristic in it, while by not giving us a direct expression of its beauty he always leave it implicit.16 In the first place, epithets in which the prefix eu- is joined to the word may seem to apply to well-done, complete objects, in which one may observe the mastery of the tchne, as in well built altar, well walled Ilion or well balanced vessels. These objects, although they are not made of precious materials nor have singular features, as in silver krater or black vessels, where we do not find the prefix and therefore we need another adjective in which there is a specific determination of the object. As we may see, there are differences between the objects whether they are new, well made or made of precious materials.17 It is clear that some of the most outstanding differences are found in the material whether gold or silver, in which decorated with silver nails, purple, next to made with art, tight or delicate add to the
Pandoras creation as I think that she is representative of objects and subjects cf. Hesiod, Theogonia, 570589 and works and Days, 57-82. 16 Cf. Vivante P., 1982. The feeling of beauty is not directly expressed, but is always implicit and p. 119 This perception of the whole and part is deeply rooted in the Homeric representation of things even quite aside from the noun-epithets phrases. We find it in the pervasive tendency to present a thing in the evidence of some vital constituent part wherever the passing act brings that part in to view. There seems to be a conscious opposition to Snells idea of the Homeric body. 17 It is important to specify that in Homer there is no cut between the human and the divine worlds, there are cases in which humans have divine presents as Peleus and Achilles armours or Andromacas veil, the difference between divine and human tools does not have to do with the form but with the quality, the objects themselves. There are also differences between the Iliad and the Odyssey, for many of the objects preferred by the poet in the former do not appear in the latter. Thus, from the war and the banquets milieus that appear in the Iliad the Odyssey repeats only the banquet, to which are added the palaces, which in the Iliad only appear in the descriptions of Achilles tent which remains a tent no matter how elaborated its description is and in the descriptions of the dwellings of the gods. Thus the detailed relation of the weapons, of the charts, is connatural to the Iliad and occupies a great deal of the examples that I will present.

description information of a luxury sensation, of ostentation, of a time when everything participated of this way of being.18 The prefix eu-, which implies excellence in the craft, will continue to be used to qualify works of artists and artisans, as we may see in the case of Polyclitus himself, who will no longer use it as a prefix but as a noun. The prefix, together with kals, is going to be one of the categories that will be used to talk about beauty.19 Homer on his side does not consider only what is well done but he also adds adjectives that talk specifically of what is new, as in nailed for the first time, not touched by fire, recently made or recently dyed, which are applied to a few objects, particularly to the prizes at Patroclus games, where the value of each object is specially considered. We may say that in these cases the idea of beauty is related to the magnificence of the object, its correct workmanship and value, but not only that, as many time the idea of a glitter coming from the object is added to this kind of descriptions so the glittering panoply, the earrings that irradiate a charming shine, the dazzling bronze or the sparkling bronze armour, among other formulas are applied to objects that may or not be of gold or silver, as it is common to find them in weaponry descriptions. On the other hand we have epithets derived from the root er or that, linked to himeros, mean love, desire and charm, as in erannos in the pleasant Chalidon or empratos in delicious banquet, which are applied to complex situations and objects in human contexts. We must consider in the first place that a city is not an object among other objects and that although the reference we find seems to talk about love and admiration to concrete cities they do not tell of a specific physical aspect as would be the high walls of Troy, but they attend to a quality that emanates from its own inhabitants.20 That is why it must not surprise us that epithets like erateins in seductive skin are also derived from the same root, as they do not refer to specific qualities, as the material or colour of something, but to certain gifts particularly those of Aphrodite which are related to youth, manliness and marriage.21 Nonetheless it is not only gentle Aphrodites beauty which is associated to youth but also that of the warrior, which persists in his corpse that at its time shines when being anointed wit
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Cf. Vivante P., op. cit., p. 124. Filo Mechanic, Belopeica, IV 49-20: t gr e par mikrn di polln arithmn phe gnesthai. 20 In this sense the polis is not the walled city but the whole of its citizens. 21 Cf. Vivante, P., op. cit., pp. 120-121.

oil to remember it, and that implies virility and courage.22 Being temporary, this beauty is shown by the mortals when, in an instant of glory, they resemble the gods in the case of warriors it reveals in all its magnitude in the death in battle, by giving honour or receiving it from another warrior who incarnates the same ideal.23 It is then this beauty that we see in Homers poems that is also that of funerary memorial, where men are represented not as anyone among men but someone among the best.24 Next to this epithets expressions like beautiful wheels, beautiful mantle or beautiful ankles are not of the same kind than the ones we have analyzed, for the word kals may be a predicate, a superlative or a comparative, but always for delimited and contained objects and subjects.25 If Homer does use kals in his descriptions of nature to denote fertility and exuberance, he does not refer to the mountains or the sea as beautiful, it is an orchard or the river flow that he exalts; nor he praises the cities but their houses and walls.26 It is characteristic from him to stop in the objects the mantles, the cups or the weapons that are not only well-manufactured objects but also have a peculiar attractive which is then determined by a relative sentence, but when talking of men and women he does not talk of the beauty of the body but of its parts, as the cheeks, the neck, the eyes or the hair.27 There is no organic conception but the detail of the corporal splendours that deploy their wonders before the eyes.
As regards warriors martial beauty in epics cf. Vernant, J. P., A Beautiful Death and the Disfigured Corpse in Homeric Epic, in Vernant, J. P., 1991, p. 66: When Xenophon explains the wearing of long hair as a way of making Spartan soldiers look taller, nobler and more terrifying (Rep. Lac. 11.3), he does not contradict the criterion of beauty this custom confers on them; he only emphasizes that it is not a matter of any kind of attractiveness, like Pariss sensuous beauty of feminine loveliness, but the beauty unique to a warrior. The importance that is given to youths shining, that persists in the death of the best, is reflected in the funeral ritual; it is necessary for the body to be preserved and that it have its part of honour in order that the beautiful death is fulfilled. It is not enough to die with honour; funeral rituals are necessary, as they imply the poets chants and the funerary memorial. Cf. Vernant, J. P., op. cit., pp. 62, 64 and 69. 23 Vernant, J. P., A Beautiful Death and the Disfigured Corpse in Homeric Epic, in Vernant, J. P., op. cit., p. 62. The hb that Patroklos and Hector lose along with their lives is one they possessed more fully than other kouroi, though the latter might have been younger. It is the same hb that Achilles guarantees for himself in perpetuity by choosing a short life an early, heroic death. While the warrior is alive, his youth appears primarily in vigour (bi), strength (kratos) and endurance (alk); when he has become weak, lifeless corpse, the glow of his youth persists in the extraordinary beauty of his body. 24 Vernant, J. P., Panta Kala: from Homer to Simonides, in Vernant, J. P., op. cit., p. 87: In giving him the geras thanonton that is, in having him pass through the entire funeral ritual from the exhibition of his body, now adorned, washed, anointed with oil, and perfumed, to the cremation of the corpse and the erection of the sma to recall his memory for men to come [essomenosi puthesthai] (the same formula applies to the funerary memorial as to epic song) the friends of the deceased expect to ensure forever his status as one of the beautiful dead, a glorious hero. 25 Cf. Vivante P., op. cit., p. 203. Kals is used as a comparative or a superlative, as a predicate or adverbially as a neutral abstract. 26 The only examples of its application is in Achilles shield. Cf., Homer Ilias, XVIII 470-471 and 558. 27 Cf. Vivante, P., op. cit., pp. 204-205.
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10 On the other hand, when we consider the examples in which beauty is associated

to the shinning coming from a person, we note that this has a clear bond to the divine and that it does not only cause amazement because of its beauty but because it may also be considered as terrifying, for it allows to see the courage of the warrior.28 Thus the shinning in the objects denotes its values and richness while the shinning between mortals is linked to the gods, it is something immediately perceived and because of it cannot be defined. We know what is beautiful, since the truth of the fact leaps to the eye, but to Greek eyes this beauty is more than luxury and delight, it has to do with the truth. Although in this context we must say that the definition of beauty is ostensive because it is true, it is not a mere appearance that changes before our eyes. To understand this bond we must consider in the first place that what the Greeks valued the most in a work was its general impression, its emotional impact, which was related to the form but based on the discourses or poems content. There is then no separation between form and content; therefore if a form is beautiful it is surely true from here derives Platos critic to the poets, because when al is form, the original sense of the discourse is corrupted and the resplendent form that hides a false meaning becomes as dangerous as Pandoras box. We must understand the works structure form from the emotional impact. In the case of objects that produce marvel, that fill us with wonder, maybe the best example is Pandoras description in Hesiods Theogony. His comparison with a sculpture of a discrete maiden, her shining clothes and ornaments makes of this beautiful evil a thauma idesthai, a wonder for men and gods whose only view causes desire. There no description in Hesiod that tells us exactly how Pandora looked like, for her real appearance not as important as the impression she causes on the observer.29 We see such mind disturbing impression in Aristotles thinking as something that exceeds logical and natural objective knowledge categories; it is what is outside the ordinary and therefore has an irrational cause that is alien to who perceives the event.30 This
Homer, Ilias, XVII 205-206: The goddess of Zeus caste crowned his head with a golden nimbus and made flow from his body an inflamed burning flame; XIX 16- 17: () when Achilles saw the arms, then came wrath upon him yet the more, and his eyes blazed forth in terrible wise from beneath their lids, as it had been flame; XXII 25-28: Old Priam was the first to see him / thrown through the plain, gleaming like the star / that rises in Autumn and whose dazzling beams blaze / among the many stars in the darkness of the night. 29 Sprague Becker, A., 1993, p. 283. Though the quality of being modest, or full of reverence, may have outward and visible signs, the text does not describe them. We are privy only to the describers interpretation of visible phenomena. The bird names a quality, the appearance of which the audience can imagine, but he does not attempt to describe the visible signs that suggest that interpretation. 30 Cf. Aspe Armella, V, 2002, p. 5.
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interpretation of what is wonderful31 is found in the context imitation of actions that inspire fear and compassion and how these are produced mostly and more intensively when some are presented beside the opinion between the others.32 This wonderful, unexpected act is not random; it must have an intention related to the tale, for that way it gives more beauty to the representation. It would seem that in Aristotle these objects bond with the divine is lost and that we had a natural causality which is understood as another resource at the poets service, who must obtain unity in his work and must therefore articulate it in the same way as the other elements. This is not the case of Hesiod, where there is no way to define beauty, it simply is something that is shown, that is preached, not something that is defined from the relations of the whole with its parts, for the whole is the accumulation of them.33 There is not then the order, the clarity and proportion that we find in Polyclitus theory the definition of beauty from symmetra, which implies the idea of an organic whole, is alien to this other definition of beauty. We must take into account that there is a series of discourse technologies in Greece, with practices, rules and strategies that do not always agree with ours, where form and content articulate with the content in a different way. We know that in an artistic work form and content must articulate in an adequate way, for what is said counts as much as the way in which it is said; although today we do not think that the content affects in an immediate way. The content may be real but this does not mean that we have a beautiful form; in fact, in a contemporary artistic context the truth is articulated with the form in a less restricted way than in the Greek context, for truth and false play less precise roles in which artists may situate themselves. In the case of the Greeks the cognitive part the one which tells about the poems and the impression were one and only thing together with the formal devices, there was no form nor wanted to praise it without its content.34 These series of considerations are joined to the Greek archaic art construction form in a way that, besides this intimate relation of form and content, we have a composition form that tries to articulate beauty from beautiful parts, accumulating parts without having a clear notion of the whole, and in which the eye looks over the object without taking into account the parts but its general impression of beauty. This idea
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Aristotle mentions the term twice in Poetics 1452 a1-10 and 1460 a 11-12. Aristotle, op. cit., 1452 a 2-3. 33 Sprague Becker, A., op. cit., pp. 277-290. 34 As Conford tells us, 1987, p. 86.

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does not take into account the notion of organism that we see in the Canon but, as we have already seen, lives together with it in later times, for composition forms are not scientific theories that when appearing cancel the former ones but that may be used simultaneously in the same work.35 To conclude, we may say that currently our situation is not different; the different art theories on art affect the way in which a work, artistic teaching and composition are appreciated. Nonetheless, at present artists are mute creators waiting for the critic to explain them what does correction and fairness in their work consist in. There are very few artists that do a real reflection on the many theoretical options at his disposal and soon prefer one or other philosophy. This is because since Motherwells death there has not been a painter that has the capacity to develop a theory that is not a more less lucky adaptation of some philosophical system in use among the critics. Aristotle, Potica de Aristteles, tr. V. Garca Yebra, Madrid, Gredos, 1974, 542 pp. Aspe Armella, Virginia, Lo maravilloso to thaumaston: Un elemento olvidado en la Potica, Mexico, Signos filosficos 8, 2002, pp. 51-70. Carter, Jane B., Sarh P., Morris, The Ages of Homer: A tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule, Austin, University of Texas, 1995, 542 pp. Cornford, F.M., Principium sapientiae. Los orgenes del pensamiento filosfico griego, tr. R. Guardiola Iranzo y F. Gimnez Gracia, Madrid, Visor, 1987, 318 pp. Gombrich, E. H., El legado de Apeles. Estudios sobre el arte del Renacimiento, tr. Anton Dieterich, Madrid, Alianza, 1982, 263 pp. ______, Ideales e dolos. Ensayo sobre los valores en la historia y el arte, tr. Esteve Riambau, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1981, 281 pp. ______, Norma y forma. Estudios sobre el arte del Renacimiento, tr. Remigio Gmez Daz, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1984, 319 pp. Gorgias Leontinos, Fragmentos, tr. P. C. Tapia Ziga, Mexico, UNAM, 1980, 176 pp. Hesiod, Teogona, tr. P. Vianello, Mexico UNAM, 1978, 414 pp. ______, Los trabajos y los das, tr. Paola Vianello, Mexico, UNAM, 1979, 397 pp. Homer, Ilada, tr. E. Crespo Gemes, Madrid, Gredos, 1991,651 pp. Xenophon, Recuerdos de Scrates. Banquete. Apologa, vers. J. D. Garca Bacca, Mexico, UNAM, 1993, 537 pp. ______, Memorabilia and Oeconomicus, tr. E.C. Marchant, Massachusetts and London, Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1959, 530 pp. Khn, C.G. ed., Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1964, 20 vols.
Wilson Jones, M., 2001, p. 105 Contrary to a popular prejudice, as we have seen, modules and proportions could reinforce one another. Different architects may have stressed one aspect more than the other, but the ideal was for both together, as is especially clear in the temples al Sounion, Delos, Segesta, and of Juno Lacinia al Agrigento. In fact Vitruvius often shows some difficulty in neatly separating the two concepts. And it seems that the way modules in the fifth century practice tended to be selected with proportional harmony in mind also reconciles a perceived opposition between the design principles of adding the parts to create the whole on the one hand, and subdividing the whole to create the parts on the other.
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Lpez Eire, Antonio, Reflexiones sobre la Potica de Aristteles, Lexis 19, 2001, pp. 219- 243. Melero Bellido, Antonio, ed., Sofistas testimonios y fragmentos, tr. A. M. Bellido, Madrid, Gredos, 1996, 307 pp. Plato, Fedro, tr. E, Lled Iigo, Madrid, Gredos, 1988, pp. 288-413. ______, Gorgias, tr. J. Calonge, Madrid, Gredos, 1983, pp. 9-145. Plutarch, Moralia. 1 a- 86 a., tr. Frank Cole Babbit, Massachusetts and London, Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1960, 15 vols. ______, Moralia. 771 e- 854 d, tr. Harold North Fowler, Massachusetts and London, Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1960, 15 vols. ______, Moralia. 612 b- 697 c, tr. Paul A, Clement y Haerbert B. Hoffleit, Massachusetts and London, Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1969, 15 vols. ______, Oeuvres morales. tr. Robert Klaerr, Andr Philippon and Jean Sirineli, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, tome I, 2nd part, 1989, pp. 9-62. ______, Oeuvres morales, F. Frazier y C. Froidefond, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, tome V, 1989, 356 pp. Pollitt, Jerry, Jordan, Art and experience in classical Greece, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972, 208 pp. Sprague Becker, Andrew, Sculpture and Language in Early Greek Ekphrasis: Lessings Laokoon, Burkes Enquiry, and the Hesiodic Descriptions of Pandora, Arethusa 26, 1993, pp. 277-293. Vernant, Jean-Pierre, Mortals and Immortals. Collected Essays, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1991, 341 p. Vivante, Paolo, The Epithets in Homer. A Study in Poetic Values, Ann Arbor, Yale university Press, 1982, 222 pp. Wilson Jones, Mark, Doric Measure and Architectural Design 1: The Evidence of the Relief from Salamis, American Journal of Archaeology 104 n. 1, 2000, pp. 73-93. ______, Doric Measure and Architectural Design 2: A Modular Reading of the Classical Temple, American Journal of Archaeology 105 n. 4, 2001, pp. 675-713.