Eternal Forms: Greek Architecture Then and Now
"Man is the Measure of all Things." --Protagoras
When Protagoras said that man is the measure of all things, he meant that man was nature's highest achievement; therefore there was no non-human standard that man has to determine things. (Remember that Homer's heroes succeed or fail because of their inner character.) This idea is found in Greek architecture as well. The proportions of a Greek temple were not a product of any architect's imagination. Rather they borrowed the symmetry and proportion found in the human body. The human body literally became the measure of Greek architectural proportions. Nature had provided a model: it was the human body.