Posted by d on December 17, 2002 at 08:28:35:In Reply to: Re: Azimuths of the Parthenon posted by Per Corell on December 17, 2002 at 05:49:38:
Yes-the stretched string was, so far as I know, the Egyptian method of getting straightness and flatness.
And , since (though it is somewhat less well known) the Greeks got much of their knowledge from Egypt , this may have been the case there as well.
But I think that it is true that no amount of stretching a string
can cause it to acquire a perfect straightness; instead, it must follow some sort of curve owing to gravity- a "catenary" arc, perhaps.
If the catenary were the essential "line" in ancient works, it might be the model for perceived lines, such as the entases of the plinth or platform edges of the Parthenon....
In contrast, the ancients knew of "pure" straight lines; those cast by the sun, which, in addition must have seemed mysteriously parallel.
So that the motive for entasis might have been religious as well as
esthetic....
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