Parthenon Sculpture: Centaur + Lapith

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Neil MacGregor's telling of the story of humanity through individual objects at the British Museum. This week he is looking at the emergence of powerful new forces across the globe around the 5th Century BC, from Confucius in China to Cyrus in Persia. Today he looks at the emotionally charged sculptures that were made for the Parthenon in Athens. Carved out of marble around 440BC these beautiful figures continue to generate huge controversy around the world for the fact that they remain in London and have not been returned to Greece. In today's programme the British Museum's director acknowledges the political controversy of the Elgin Marbles (named after the British Lord who carried them off) but concentrates on their artistic story and on exploring the ancient Greek world that created them. He describes a culture besotted with the myths and imagery of battle. The Greek archaeologist Olga Palagia and the classicist Mary Beard help conjure up the extraordinary city of antiquity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects
0:07.8	from BBC Radio 4.
0:11.8	Around 1800, Lord Elgin removed some of the sculptures from the ruins of the Parthenon in
0:18.4	Athens and a few years later put them on public show in London. For most Western Europeans it was the
0:24.3	first time they had ever been able to look closely at Greek sculpture and they were
0:28.2	overwhelmed and inspired by the breathing vitality and the beauty of these works.
0:33.0	But in the 21st century, the Elgin marbles, as they've long been known,
0:38.0	are famous less as art objects than as objects a political controversy. For most people today, the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum provoke only
0:58.6	one question, should they be in London or in Athens? The Greek government insists they should be in Athens. The Greek government insists they should be in Athens, the British
1:05.9	Museum's trustees believe that in London they're an integral part of the story of
1:10.6	world cultures. For me the pathon and sculptures reveal to us the
1:16.4	tensions the discontents the conflicts and also the sheer brilliance of ancient Greek culture.
1:24.0	For the modern Greeks, the Parthman sculptures are a rallying cry and a remembrance of things lost.
1:31.0	The whole part, and not only things lost.
1:33.8	The whole part and not only the sculptures, but the building became emblematic, the symbol
1:39.6	of new Greece.
1:41.0	It still is, and we're still restoring it. And naturally, of course, the sculptures
1:46.1	of the Parthenon are part of this.
1:49.6	It's a passionate debate in which everyone has their own view. But in this program I want to focus on one
1:55.5	sculpture in particular and what that sculpture meant to the people who made it and
2:00.2	looked at it in Athens in the 5th century BC.
2:06.0	A history of the world in a hundred objects. Fight between Centaur and Lapith, a marble sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, approximately
	...

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