A new museum opening in Athens is designed expressly for the purpose of hastening the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles, taken from Greece over two hundred years ago by Lord Elgin, who was then the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
The Brits don't want to give them up, and I can't say as I blame them. I'm not really sure which side I take on this. The Brits have taken care of the marbles, after all, while many of the pieces that remained in Greece have, as pointed out in the article linked, fallen victim to war and to natural disasters. Some are gone forever.
Still, they are, after all, a very important part of Greece's cultural and historical heritage.
It might be a lot easier to side with the Greeks if the leaders of their dominant religion-the Greek Orthodox Church-were not so easily inclined to make such statements as "monstrous errors of the past" in referencing the ancient pagan faiths and cults of their forefathers.
For the time being, I'll just side with the deities. Maybe they like it where they are just fine.
3 comments:
Greeks fight over such stupid stuff, and the priests in the O church are such ass wipes.
I'm actually reading an account today by a European traveler of the time who thought Elgin was a prick. It was definitely not a minority opinion either. On the other hand, he allowed Keats to write a nice poem about the marbles.
Rufus, is that by any chance on-line. I'd like to have a look at that myself.
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