In the comment section
underneath the post area many people often ask the following
question: If you can't get really big without steroids why there are
so many ancient Greek sculptures presenting ideal male bodies –
muscular and ripped? There were no steroids at that time.
The reason why you see so
many statues of man in excellent shape is because having a well
developed mind and body was extremely respectful back in the day.
Someone who possessed both was considered God amongst ordinary men.
The idea behind the creation of a monument is to present some sort of
larger than life qualities. It's something you are meant to look up
to. Imagine if every monument was as big as a normal person. It will
look and feel too ordinary and people won't be saying: “What the
hell is that thing?”. Therefor most of the monuments we value are "out of this world".
It may be cool to believe
that there is some sort of an ancient secret that will make you huge
and shredded but reality says otherwise. To tell the truth, some of the
statues do not even represent huge men, not at all.
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| Image source: http://www.ancientgreece.com |
While nobody can
know for sure how big was the musculature of people back then the
statues of Greek Gods were never meant to show the average Greek man
or woman. Having similar body back in the day was the
ideal and not the norm. Artists are known to study anatomy in order to create something unfeasible for
the majority of the population.
What is certain, however, is the fact that on average people were physically stronger back then. It was a requirement for survival and jobs were mostly manual unless you were part of the elite or old. Today we have offices, cars and other equipment that reduces the need for manual labor. Therefor the average person is known to be pretty weak because "if you don't use it, you lose it".