“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, is a very famous quote by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. Martin, Gary. (“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Phrase Finder, n.d. Web. April 7, 2014) This quote means that many different people see beauty in their own way. Beauty can be found in many different forms such as personal appearance, nature, personality, art and architecture. Modern and ancient Greek social values support similar and different ideals of beauty. Today we value beauty especially such as hair, body shape, money and face. The ancient Greeks valued beauty as a sum of parts formed into a coherent whole with symmetry, harmony and proportion as key elements. (Sartwell, Beach) We can see the ancient Greeks' ideal of beauty given physical form through their statues, architecture, and paintings. Women are the main focus in terms of physical manifestation of ideal beauty. In today's modern world women simply undergo plastic surgery to correct perceived physical defects, dye their hair the desired color, or artificially tan to achieve a darker skin color. However, in ancient Greece women stayed indoors to become paler and maintain a lighter skin tone. They used sheep fat as a foundation and, like today, plucked out unwanted hair to achieve the natural hair line. (Valentine, LaNae. "Beauty Through the Ages | Recapturing Beauty) Every era has its own different ways of defining beauty. There are many different beauty philosophies in every era because people try to interpret the true meaning of beauty. Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates are three very important figures of ancient Greece whose philosophies on beauty capture that era's views on beauty. P...... middle of paper ......r current definitions of beauty Today Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines beauty as:1: the quality or set of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasantly exalts the mind or spirit: LOVE2: a person or thing beautiful above all: a beautiful woman3: a particularly graceful, ornamental person; , or excellent quality4: a brilliant, extreme or striking example or instance. Classical Hellenic elements of beauty such as purity, the value of a person's overall impact can be clearly seen or thing that provides pleasure to the senses, the quality of excellence or goodness. These classical ideals of beauty were first proclaimed by classical ancient Greek philosophers, and the fact that they are still found in today's definition of beauty has proven that those concepts are timeless and eternal.
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