Ancient Greece in 950BCE was a culture that took great pride in perfection, excellence, and overall greatness. The people weren't what today's society would consider modern, but of their time, they were. The Greeks essentially molded the creative world with their intelligence in art, architecture, and astronomy for many cultures to come. The Romans, who basically claimed the Greeks developments as their own, destroyed many of their ideas and art forms. Even though so much of the Greek culture has been destroyed, it remains within society today. So many aspects of modern-day life have been, in some way, influenced by the Greeks.
             The Greeks were a culture that strived for perfection and harmony. They were fascinated with the human form, and this is revealed in most of their artwork. The Greeks were the first to glamorize the perfection of the human body during the Archaic period. Using balance and proportion, the Greeks sculpted what they considered to be the perfect male and female forms. They called the male the Kouros. He was considered to represent Apollo (a Greek G-d) or the perfect male athlete. The Kouros were always depicted nude in a contrapposto position, meaning one foot in front of the other and facing forward. He had braided hair, no eyeballs (Greeks believed that the eyes were the windows to the soul) and an archaic smile. The female figure was called the Kore; she was a freestanding, fully clothed figure, usually depicted draped in jewelry. The Kore was much more youthful-looking than the Kouros. She also had no eyeballs and the infamous archaic smile.
             These two forms of Greek sculpture, along with others, can be related to our society today. The Kouros and Kore served as antique models. What the Greeks considered to be ideal body types have influenced our own views. Men should be muscular and strong, and women youthful and well dressed. The Kore was depicted more fully figured than what is considered acceptable ...