Chapter 4: The Louvre: From Castle to Palace to Museum

 The Louvre is a grand museum and cannot be explored within one day. The museum contains items from vast regions and time periods, but the anatomy of the museum helps the visitor construct its own visit based on their curiosity or interests and allowing them to become lost. From my visit to the Louvre the areas that were permissible to visit due to the date were the eastern, the Egyptian, Greek , Etruscan, roman antiquities and some of the art collection from the museum. We were able to see the earliest examples of writing along with sculptures and carvings from Egyptian origins. In the Greek floor we were able to admire the art work which mainly focused on deities of their mythology. Greek mythology was not only able to be seen within the walls of the floor but we were also able to admire the influence that it has had among other cultures. Greek and Roman mythology is a visible influence in many other cultures more than likely due to the mythology serving as a guideline to the behavior as well as the successful administration over two civilizations. Greek and Roman mythology has served as a window into the style of life and traditions of two civilizations which were able to flourish and expand in power for many years. The heroes and heroines each possess a story within the mythology that warn or exalt in the readers' eyes their exploits and the achievement of human. Greek and Roman mythology present their deities as being more similar to man than those of current religions while at the same time they both share similarities in the format in which both present their teachings. The stories generally possess a moral at the completion of the story. The classical artwork displayed in the museum  differs from the early pieces of early writing in that the art was raw in comparison to what the greek were able to achieve through development of their art skills. The perceived perfection of both cultures differed as did their definition of beauty.