{"id":38392,"date":"2023-11-30T08:57:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T03:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=38392"},"modified":"2025-04-23T10:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T05:06:33","slug":"parthenon-sculptures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/parthenon-sculptures\/","title":{"rendered":"Parthenon Sculptures at the centre of the row between Britain and Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Parthenon Sculptures<\/li>\n<li>What are the Parthenon Sculptures?<\/li>\n<li>How did the sculptures reach Britain?<\/li>\n<li>Were the sculptures stolen?<\/li>\n<li>How did Britain respond?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, British PM Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the status of the Parthenon Sculptures housed at the British Museum.<\/li>\n<li>It prompted Athens to accuse London of trying to avoid discussing the contested sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles.<\/li>\n<li>Over the years, Greece has repeatedly asked for the sculptures\u2019 permanent return to Athens, but the British Museum have refused to do so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are the Parthenon Sculptures?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>The Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum are more than 30 <u>ancient stone sculptures from Greece that are more than 2,000 years old<\/u>.\n<ul>\n<li>Most of them originally adorned the walls and grounds of the Parthenon temple on the rocky Acropolis hill in Athens.<\/li>\n<li>Completed in 432 BC, the temple is dedicated to the goddess Athena and is seen as the <u>crowning glory of Athens\u2019 Golden Age<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Made between 447BC and 432BC they consist of:\n<ul>\n<li>a frieze which\u00a0shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival (the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena);<\/li>\n<li>a series of metopes (sculpted relief panels) depicting\u00a0the battle between Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage-feast of Peirithoos;\u00a0and<\/li>\n<li>figures of the gods and legendary heroes from the temple&#8217;s pediments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>History of Parthenon\n<ul>\n<li>The Parthenon was constructed in the 5th century BC, reflecting the <u>power and dominance of the then city-state of Athens<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>It became a symbol for the modern nation state of Greece following independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832.<\/li>\n<li>When Athens was selected as capital of the new country in 1834, most of the post-Roman period structures on the Acropolis were removed.\n<ul>\n<li>This was to accommodate further archaeological exploration and to return the site to a state that reflected Greece&#8217;s idealised &#8216;Classical&#8217; past.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Parthenon itself has a complex history. <u>It has been a temple, a church, a mosque and is now an archaeological site.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>It has sustained significant damage throughout its long history, in particular as a result of an explosion while it was in use as an ammunition store in 1687; this left the Parthenon as a ruin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Architecture of the Parthenon\n<ul>\n<li>For ancient Greeks, mathematical ratios formed the basis of ideal standards such as harmony, beauty, and balance.<\/li>\n<li>Thus, their architectural styles reflect these mathematical ratios.<\/li>\n<li>The Parthenon was designed and built in the Doric style, while also incorporating some Ionic elements.\n<ul>\n<li>Doric architecture features fluted columns without bases, topped with simple capitals, or tops, that are rectangular.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How did the sculptures reach Britain?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>They were <u>removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century by Thomas Bruce<\/u>, the 7th Earl of Elgin and then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.<\/li>\n<li>The marbles were taken to Britain and purchased by the British Museum in 1816.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Were the sculptures stolen?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>While Athen accused Lord Elgin of theft, he insisted he had permission to remove the marbles from the Ottoman Empire, which used to control Athen at the time.<\/li>\n<li>The original letter giving him permission, however, has been lost and its text remains disputed.<\/li>\n<li>Athens has been demanding the return of the sculptures since it became independent in the early 1830s.<\/li>\n<li>The campaign gained momentum in the 1980s after Greek Oscar-nominated actress Melina Mercouri launched a movement for their return when she was culture minister between 1981 and 1989.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How did Britain respond?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The British Museum, the caretaker of the sculptures, claims that they were acquired by Elgin under a legal contract with the Ottoman Empire.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, it has rejected the demands of their return.<\/li>\n<li>In March, PM Sunak said the <u>marbles are a huge asset to the UK<\/u> and ruled out changing a law that would allow the sculptures to be given back to Greece.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0Who is goddess Athena?<\/h3>\n<p>In ancient Greek mythology, Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war, and crafts. She was also the patroness of Athens.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is Doric style of architecture?<\/h3>\n<p>The Doric style is a simple, geometric, and monumental style of architecture that originated in mainland Greece.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-culture\/parthenon-sculptures-britain-greece-9046166\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>What are the Parthenon Sculptures, at the centre of the row between Britain and Greece?<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishmuseum.org\/about-us\/british-museum-story\/contested-objects-collection\/parthenon-sculptures#:~:text=Made%20between%20447BC%20and%20432BC,Peirithoos%3B%20and%20figures%20of%20the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The British Museum<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Parthenon Sculptures are stone sculptures from Greece that are more than 2,000 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}