Editing Ancient Greek architecture (section)

=== Religion and philosophy ===
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|image1    = Model of ancient Olympia.jpg
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|caption1  = Above: Modern model of ancient Olympia with the Temple of Zeus at the centre<br /><br /> Right: Recreation of the colossal statue of Athena, once housed in the Parthenon, with sculptor Alan LeQuire
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The [[Ancient Greek religion|religion of ancient Greece]] was a form of nature worship that grew out of the beliefs of earlier cultures. However, unlike earlier cultures, man was no longer perceived as being threatened by nature, but as its sublime product.<ref name="HG1" /> The natural elements were personified as gods of the complete human form, and very human behaviour.<ref name="BF1" />

The home of the gods was thought to be [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]], the highest mountain in Greece. The most important deities were: [[Zeus]], the supreme god and ruler of the sky; [[Hera]], his wife and goddess of marriage; [[Athena]], goddess of wisdom; [[Poseidon]], the god of the sea; [[Demeter]], goddess of the harvest; [[Apollo]], the god of the sun, law, healing, plague, reason, music and poetry; [[Artemis]], goddess of chastity, the hunt and the wilderness; [[Aphrodite]], goddess of love; [[Ares]], God of war; [[Hermes]], the god of commerce and travellers, [[Hephaestus]], the god of fire and metalwork; and [[Dionysus]], the god of wine and fruit-bearing plants.<ref name="BF1" /> Worship, like many other activities, was done in the community, in the open. However, by 600 BC, the gods were often represented by large statues and it was necessary to provide a building in which each of these could be housed. This led to the development of temples.<ref name=Strong2>{{harvnb|Strong|1965|pp=35–36}}.</ref>

The ancient Greeks perceived order in the universe, and in turn, applied order and reason to their creations. Their humanist philosophy put mankind at the centre of things and promoted well-ordered societies and the development of democracy.<ref name="HG1" /> At the same time, the respect for human intellect demanded a reason, and promoted a passion for enquiry, logic, challenge, and problem-solving. The architecture of the ancient Greeks, and in particular, temple architecture, responds to these challenges with a passion for beauty, and for order and symmetry which is the product of a continual search for perfection, rather than a simple application of a set of working rules.
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