by a hieroglyph—the combination of which represents the eye of Horus, the god with a falcon face.
Modern medical prescription symbol
This symbol, still used by physicians to signify a recipe, strangely resembles the eye of Horus. Ancient Egyptians knew a great deal about pigments, cosmetics and embalming. They were knowledgeable about diet, massage, hypnosis and contraceptives, and had a pharmacopoeia of hundreds of drugs. In the West, mummy powder would long be considered as a cure for many ills.
Egyptians systematically incorporated that science into their architecture. For example, 160 feet (63 m) inside the Abu Simbel temple, the statue of Ramses II (c. 1304–1237 B.C.) was bathed by sunlight twice yearly on precise calendar days.
Extended knowledge of astronomy prevailed throughout the region. The Talmud relates that, in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the rays of the sun during the equinox lit the altar by passing through a metal disk in the door. Egyptian monumental relief sculpture, whose design was strictly codified, enhanced the architectural beauty, while assuming its part in the ritual.
Besides their aesthetic appeal, obelisks served as sundials. The most famous of them, Cleopatra’s Needle, was used to calculate the time, seasons and solstices.
Observation and reasoning
Across the Mediterranean Basin, an amalgam of ideas from Mesopotamia and Egypt were transcribed using the Semitic alphabet. Commerce with regions as remote as the Baltic resulted in an unprecedented cross-cultural fertilization. Brightly painted Egyptian buildings must have influenced the surrounding architecture in many ways.
The Cretans (c. 2500–1100 B.C.) were energized by the arrival of metal working, pottery and the textile industry. They inherited their neighbors’ traditions, but interpreted them in their own way.
Egyptian tomb decorations were thought by the Greeks to be painted inventories of objects for daily use. Homer even described the Egyptians as “a race of druggists.” Whereas the latter had concentrated on death, the Greeks used science to serve health, developing the art of living to a high degree. They had houses with several rooms and tiled roofs, running water and luxurious bathrooms.
Despite their condescension towards the Egyptians, the Greeks are believed to have adopted Imhotep as their god of medicine. They gave him the name Asklepius, and his daughter-wife Hygeia was the goddess of health. The practice of medicine extended by Hippocrates (c. 460–377 B.C.) became an art based on technical recipes.
Before the Ancient Greeks, science was a loose collection of observations used for practical applications. The Greeks, who developed a keen awareness of space—probably through their navigational skills—were responsible for the birth of science, and even of science for the sake of science.
Plan of the antique city of Miletus
The Greeks learned mathematics from the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, and used it in their urban and architectural plans. A map of Manhattan would not look very different.
Thales of Miletus, regarded as the founder of natural philosophy (c. 625–547 B.C.), studied astronomy in Mesopotamia and stunned all who knew about it by correctly predicting a solar eclipse. In Egypt, he learned land surveying from which he deduced geometry.
According to Thales, the universe was made of a physical substance, water. From his time on, philosophers sought to understand the basic mechanisms of nature by the use of analogy and reasoning. They introduced a systematic approach in all avenues of creation.
The great philosophical awakening was accompanied by a formidable architectural movement. The Egyptians used the grid as an aid in architectural design, but the Greeks extended orthogonal planning to the layout of entire cities. Tapered columns, angle contraction and other design tricks used for visual effect were current in the Middle East; the Greeks adapted them to a system of “ideal” proportions based on the Golden Section. This became fundamental to architecture in a unique way.
The Golden Section
The Greeks were fascinated by the Golden Section—a line or a rectangle divided into segments in such a way that the smaller one has the same ratio to the largest, as the largest has to the whole. They were not the first and would not be the last to exploit its beauty. The Golden Section is found in the Great Pyramid and Chartres Cathedral, as well as in plant growth patterns.
The idea of the union of body and spirit inspired architectural forms related to human anatomy and was typical of the Ancient Greeks. Builders were capable of transforming mathematical concepts into architectural delights to please the senses. They created art for the sake of art, so to speak.
The three Greek architectural orders
The Greeks used three orders as modules: Doric, based on early Eastern models, Ionic, and later Corinthian, which defined the proportions of the whole building. Concerning the strict rules of the Doric order the Roman architect Vitruvius said: “Of whatever thickness they made the base of the shaft, they raised it along with the capital to six times as much in its height. So the column began to furnish the proportions of a man’s body strength, and grace.”
Early Greek temples were like shrines containing a statue. The cult of human-looking gods institutionalized by the Olympic Games (ninth century B.C.) spawned a new form of architecture. The typical Greek construction, supported by stylish columns, became a place of public worship. Its wide porches and brightly painted friezes encircling the building beckoned from all sides.
Stone blocks were shaped with exacting precision and fitted together without mortar. No classical Greek architectural plan has been found, but it is evident that temple design based on ideal proportions was standardized. Only small variations were accepted in the overall scheme.
Ideal proportions, rather than the simple grid as used in Egypt, played a key role in determining the appearance of sculptures and buildings in Ancient Greece, as well as shaping theories. Plato (427–347 B.C.), who was interested in the intrinsic beauty of forms rather than in fashionable design, believed that geometry provided the key to the mysteries of nature, science and art.
Convergence of the Parthenon columns, Philippe Comar
The Parthenon’s forty-six columns theoretically converge at a point 6,500 feet (2,000 m) high (which would be situated at infinity if the columns were parallel). The Greek builders were aware of the illusion which makes a bright object appear bigger than a dark one. To offset this effect, columns viewed against dark walls are thinner than the corner columns, which are seen against the sky.
Making the world intelligible in mathematical terms was one of the great advances of human thought, bringing abstraction into play. Order, hierarchy, ethics and aesthetics were intricately interwoven. Plato, who had a special interest in education, advocated: “Let your children’s lessons take the form of a game. Learning through play is linked with sympathy, and conformity with beauty and reason.”
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) thought that facts
