It is thought that about 600 B.C. the Greeks became acquainted with Egyptian sculpture and from them took a method of composing a figure and a system of proportion. Nothing is known of the underlying motives for the early Egyptian system of figure composition. It may have been mainly a convenient technical method of designing a statue ( keeping an essentially top heavy figure stable ) or perhaps carried a wider theory of the human figure. The arms held firmly at the side with clenched fists and one foot forward does give a sense of both "aliveness" and resolute purpose.