Submitted by Cath Parnell on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 13:28
The history of Athens and its many monuments is endlessly exciting for visitors and you don't need to be in the city itself to get a taste of its glorious past. Wander around London, admire a few buildings, have a short visit to the British Museum and then finish your day with a trip to the cinema and you will feel like you've been to transported to ancient Greece. So here are 10 points of call for experiencing your very own "Athens day" in London.
The metopes are individual sculptures in high relief. The Parthenon was decorated by 92 metopes, 32 on each long side and 14 on each short. Each metope was separated from the next one by a small grooved slab called trygliph.
The metopes, placed above the external row of columns, represented several mythical battles: episodes of the Trojan War on the north side, the Struggle between Lapiths and Centaurs (half-men, half-horses) on the south, the Gigantomachy (fight between gods and giants) on the east and the Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons) on the west.
Of the 64 metopes preserved 48 are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens, 15 in the British Museum of London and 1 with fragments of others in the Louvre Museum of Paris. Further fragments of Metopes are also in the Vatican Museums of Rome and 1 (a head) is at the University of Würzburg.
