The ancient Greeks had a theory of harmony and balance that produced beauty in the proportions of architecture and grace in the movements of the human body.  They called it in eurythmy, a word that Baron Pierre de Coubertin used often in his Olympic writings but is hardly heard in public discourse today.  In 1929 in Paris, the Baron gave a long lecture on “Olympia” and made the point that the ancient Hellenes applied the principles of eurythmy—harmony and balance—to all aspects of life.  This quote is a paraphrase, modified for clarity.  It once again reveals the centricity of ancient Hellenism to the Baron’s modern thought.

“It was Hellenism's immortal glory to have conceived of the codification of the pursuit of balance, as a formula for social greatness. Here in Olympia we stand on the ruins of the first capital of the kingdom of harmony and balance (eurythmy), for eurythmy is not applicable merely in the field of art. There is also eurythmy of life.”