Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #parthenonmarbles
Most recents (6)
Been seeing a spike in anti-Greek hatred lately in the context of the #ParthenonMarbles discussion. One historian, @ZareerMasani says of the #Greeks that there is little doubt we would return a “loan” of the marbles. Are the #Greeks deadbeats? Liars perhaps?
Another historian, @Mario_Trabucco, seems to believe the #Greek people who wish the return of the #ParthenonMarbles are greedy or perhaps jealous because we apparently want something that isn’t ours. He even quotes scripture!
A predictable switch from claiming it's a matter for the #BritishMuseum trustees - to wading right into the issue:
The #ParthenonMarbles "belong here in the UK" & should not be returned to #Greece, Michele Donelan the UK culture secretary has insisted.
bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
The #ParthenonMarbles "belong here in the UK" & should not be returned to #Greece, Michele Donelan the UK culture secretary has insisted.
bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
I say predictable - because past actions of this government have indicated that they would be against return of the #ParthenonMarbles - deferring to the British Museum Trustees was always a cheap get-out to avoid answering the question they'd been asked.
And as surely as night follows day, now the trustees are being more proactive the government has revealed their hand - with the exact cards in it that almost everyone had already deduced they'd be holding.
The entry point to the Acropolis through the Propylaeum controls your first view of the Parthenon.
Everyone's first view of the Parthenon (up close) is this one. This was how it was designed to be seen.
#Parthenon #Acropolis #Athens #Greece #parthenonmarbles #greekarchitecture
Everyone's first view of the Parthenon (up close) is this one. This was how it was designed to be seen.
#Parthenon #Acropolis #Athens #Greece #parthenonmarbles #greekarchitecture
The positioning of the buildings on the Acropolis may be less haphazard, than it first appears.
The three primary buildings (Propylaeum, Parthenon & Erechtheion) are arranged based on a system of rays giving an optimum view of the façade of the Parthenon.
The three primary buildings (Propylaeum, Parthenon & Erechtheion) are arranged based on a system of rays giving an optimum view of the façade of the Parthenon.
From this vantage-point, the outermost limits of the other two buildings form an angle of 60 degrees, and the three points form an equilateral triangle, a geometric form that is also associated with Athena.
The case of the return of two solemn Greek Orthodox Patriachal documents and an 18th century Ottoman firman has been highlighted in this tweet from @artlawles. It is an interesting case that is also relevant to the ongoing debate over the return of looted cultural treasures 1/6
According to records kept by the #BritishLibrary @britishlibrary the rare sigallia confirming the patriarchal value of the Holy Monastery of Panagia #Chrysopodaritissa and the related Turkish Sultanate firman of 1786 (pictured) were "presented" in 1988 by Walter Stecklemacher 2/6
Reports suggest that they were looted from the monastery by archaeologists in 1979 and later sold abroad. A keen observer saw them on the British Library’s website and in due course the relevant Greek antiquities authorities were notified and formally approached the Library 3/6
The poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn", with its opening lines “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,/Thou foster child of silence and slow time”, was inspired by John Keats’ viewing of the #ParthenonMarbles in the Elgin Room of the #BritishMuseum in 1817. 1/6
A panel in the #Parthenon frieze arouses Keats’ attention where the procession features "that heifer lowing at the skies", with its upturned tilt and stretch and silken flanks. Keats’ sylvan historian can only but enquire: “What men or gods are these?" 2/6
What the imagination seizes as beauty in the case of the Elgin Marbles is a reflection of the paramount importance of aesthetic integrity. Truly, the Parthenon Sculptures are a "thing of beauty is a joy for ever” as John Keats wrote in the memorable first line of "Endymion". 3/6
#NadineGordimer: "Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set" - not content with claiming sovereignty over other peoples' countries, the British Empire appropriated the art in which the ethos, history, religious mythology, the fundament of the people is imbued. 3/
...We should start by ceasing to speak of the 'Elgin Marbles'. They are not and never were Lord Elgin's marbles; that is not their provenance. ... They are sections of the Parthenon Marbles that Lord Elgin... had hacked out of the antique frieze in the Parthenon 4/
In terms of origin, the claim is absolute: they belong to Greece. But as representative of the culture of ancient Greece, as the genesis of the ideal of humanism and beauty in art, there is also the argument that the Parthenon frieze belongs to world culture..5/
