The Greeks, and particularly the Spartans, studied ‘physiognomy’ to interpret the character, personality, and ultimately the soul of an individual based on physical features, especially of the face to the point that ugliness in certain Greek states was practically a curse. It was also believed that beauty and a willingness of the features should be an expression of noble qualities necessary for a beautiful body bearer, if only dormant. The creators of the Greek statues made them with that knowledge of the human face and the perfect proportions in mind, and therefore represented not only a beautiful body but also a beautiful body carrying a beautiful soul.
The blind rage with which the Christians destroyed most Greek statues indicates that they greatly feared what they represented, because in them the Hellenes fixed and settled, once and for all, as a goal and template, and ideal: the human type that Christianity would never be able to produce.
(Passages from one of Evropa Soberana’s essays in The Fair Race’s Darkest Hour.)