When you look at art, you see the message an artist was trying to convey. Sometimes the artist tries to evoke emotions that he himself felt. Sometimes they try to show the beauty they see in the world. Sometimes the artist seeks to tell a story or history so that it can be documented for the present and future. In both Egyptian and Greek art, artists used their art to make life more beautiful, as both cultures appreciated beautiful things, but they also used their art to tell their story. Today we can look at the art of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and see what they saw, what they wanted to see, and what they wanted to show us. For the ancient Egyptians and Greeks art was about telling the story, showing their ideals, expressing their values ​​and as propaganda for religion and rulers, giving us an insight into their life and culture. The beginning of Egyptian art consisted of painting small figures on cave walls and pottery. These images told stories that depicted historical events that they deemed important enough to document. The basic principles of Egyptian art have remained much the same throughout history. Ancient Egyptian art resembles pyramids, temples, and mummies. However, Egyptian art included much more than this. Egyptian art shows us how the Egyptians lived and also how they died. “Egyptian art was concerned above all with ensuring the continuity of the universe, the gods, the king and the people. Artists therefore depicted things not as they saw them, but as idealized symbols intended to be more meaningful and long-lasting than would otherwise be possible in the real world” (Andrews 2010). Artists in Ancient Egypt were more interested in portraying a message or story than in... middle of paper... Athens." Arion Spring 1998: 48-78. JSTOR. Web. December 1, 2010. Ostrow, Ann Olga and Claire L. Lyons Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archeology London: Routledge, 1997. Print.Powell, Benjamin. Erichthonius and the Three Daughters of Cecrops, by Benjamin Powell,.. : The Macmillan Company, 1906. Print.Robins, Gay and Ann S. Fowler Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. Print.Smith, William Stevenson and William Kelly Simpson The Art and Ancient Egyptian Architecture Edition 3, revised, illustrated New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Print. "Stelai." Web nd. December 1, 2010. Trigger, Bruce G.. Ancient Egypt: A Social History [Cambridgeshire : Cambridge University Press, 1983. Print.