PHIDIAS by Peter F. Drucker

“It was at about this same time, and also in Hamburg during my stay as a trainee, that I read a story that conveyed to me what perfection means. It is a story of the greatest sculptor of ancient Greece, Phidias.

He was commissioned around 440 b.c. to make the statues that to this day stand on the roof of the Parthenon, in Athens. They are considered among the greatest sculptures of the Western tradition, but when Phidias submitted his bill, the city accountant of Athens refused to pay it.

‘These statues,’ the accountant said, ‘stand on the roof of the temple, and on the highest hill in Athens. Nobody can see anything but their fronts. Yet you have charged us for sculpting them in the round—that is, for doing their back sides, which nobody can see.’

‘You are wrong,’ Phidias retorted. ‘The gods can see them.’

I read this, as I remember, shortly after I had listened to Falstaff, and it hit me hard. I have not always lived up to it.

I have done many things that I hope the gods will not notice, but I have always known that one has to strive for perfection even if only the gods notice.”