Comparison Essay

Humans do what they know. They learn from those who went before them. The Greeks during the Archaic Period knew what the Egyptians had done, and they modeled their sculptures after the Egyptians’. However, they added their own flair to them. Likewise, the Greeks during the Classical Period enhanced what the Archaic Greeks did. The Classical Greeks perfected the Archaic Greeks’ human form sculptures. This pattern of taking ideas from people who preceded them and enhancing them is evident throughout human history. It is an example of how all peoples’ ideas are connected.
The Egyptians’ sculptures reflected their lifestyles. They were, emotionally, a serious civilization. They were completely obsessed with death and the afterlife. Their culture placed a huge emphasis on power and their gods. Their lives were static and lacked diversity. Therefore, their sculptures and lacked diversity. They all had the similar poses that evoke feelings of power and stature. Egyptian sculpture had patterned musculature. Another major Egyptian trademark is that they never made freestanding sculptures; they were never completely carved out of the stone. Their sculptures were of their gods; they considered the pharaohs to be gods. They (being the gods) were always shown barefoot. The bareness of the feet became a sign of a deity. That is one of the many traditions that the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians.
The Archaic Greeks borrowed many ideas from the Egyptians and enhanced them. In fact the earliest Kouros found are very similar to Egyptian sculpture. The Egyptian sculpture is shown on the left is Menkaure and his wife (I) and the Greek sculpture shown to the right is a Kouros (II). Both have patterned musculature, the exact same static pose, and they even have similar hairstyles. The Kouros are also barefoot. That means that the Greeks gave men who died in battle the same amount of respect that they would give to a god. However, note the one major difference between the Greek sculpture and the Egyptian sculpture: the Greek sculpture is freestanding while the Egyptian sculpture is still not completely carved out of the rock. Freestanding sculpture will continue throughout Greek and later Roman sculpture. Kroisos (c.525 B.C.E.) (III) introduced modeled musculature. His body looks more realistic, yet is still frozen in the static Egyptian pose. Another major difference is the introduction of the Archaic smile into Greek sculpture (which Kroisos is sporting). It suggests that the Greeks valued the finer things in life and they enjoyed themselves as opposed to the serious expressions of Egyptian sculpture.
Times were changing in Greek sculpture. The Kritios Boy (c. 480 B.C.E.) connected the Archaic Period to the Classical Period in Greece. He introduced the tilting of the hips to create a relaxed stance (otherwise known as contrapposto) that looked more realistic as opposed to the static poses of Egyptian sculpture and older Archaic Period sculpture. He also has a more realistic modeled musculature than previous sculpture. Polykleitos’s Doryphoros (c. 450-440 B.C.E.) (IV) perfected human form sculpture. The body was perfectly proportioned and contrapposto. The sculpture pays great attention to detail, even portraying the veins of the arms and definition in the muscles. The Greeks used numbers and formulas to perfect proportions. Having discovered the mathematical formulas needed to create a perfectly proportioned sculpture, they were able to create amazing sculptures of people in motion. Perhaps the best example of a Classical Greek human form sculpture in motion is Myron’s Diskobolos (c. 450 B.C.E.) (V). This sculpture is amazing because is captures the true essence of motion. It appears as a snapshot of a discus thrower in the act of throwing the discus. The sculpture of Poseidon or Zeus (c. 460-450 B.C.E.) (VI) is another great example of motion and an example of how the Greeks viewed their gods. The sculpture depicts either Zeus throwing a thunderbolt or Poseidon throwing a trident. However, scholars cannot know for sure because the statue no longer has the lightning bolt or trident attached to it. The sculpture shows that the Greeks viewed their gods as powerful. The god in the sculpture manages to stay balanced and stable while hurling either a lightning bolt or trident at someone.
The human tendency to borrow ideas as the Greeks did from the Egyptians is good because it connects people. Ideas acted as a metaphorical bridge with which two cultures are forever connected. Through many of those metaphorical “idea” bridges humans have come to where they are today. Without building upon the works of those who preceded them, humans would still be hunter- gatherers. Improvement on preexisting ideas has led to modern technology and a greater understanding of people and how we relate to each other. Humans still have quite a way to go in relating to each other; but if they continue on this path of borrowing the good qualities of those who preceded them and building upon it, they should develop that understanding in time.

I. II. III. IV.

V. VI.