Temple of Poseidon
Posted on 08/01/2004 8:48:19 AM PDT by Dog Gone
Elgin Marbles --- No - NOT the round ones!:
http://images.google.com/images?q=Elgin+Marbles+&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search
They are stolen property that should be returned to their rightful owners, The Greek people
By that standard, I would be able to run the decendents of some Kansas Redlegs off a couple of farms that my g'g'grandad owned in Cass County Missouri and take possesion. Nice big farms, too. Of course, there are some folks with a little Osage blood who might have something to say about it.
Elgin stole 'em fair and square. They would have probably been burned for mortar by the locals if he had not done so. The current Greek government has no significant continuity with the people who made the art. If the Greeks want them, let them make an offer.
What if we took that arch that Saddam built that looks like two swords and erected it to span Pennsylvania Ave in DC? Baghdad doesn't need it, and if we are going to be an Imperial Power like the dims claim Bush wants, isn't it time we started collecting some cool trophies?
They were carved from Greek marble by Greeks in Greece. There is no justification for them to be in Britain.
We have seen the marbles. We are done with them, there is nothing more to be learned. They can safely be returned as a gift to the site where they can rot.
The Greeks are building a musuem at the Acropolis which presumably has air filters and returning the marbles now would not endanger them. But I don't know that for a certainty. Ideally, they would have been preserved and protected while they were part of the Parthenon. They weren't, and it's doubtful they'll ever be placed back on that structure.
The Acropolis could be completely enclosed and sealed from the city's atmosphere. Then the various buildings and statues could be rebuilt, the best artists employed. The Acropolis could be a hugh tourist attraction, a classical Disneyworld.
Perhaps the origin of the phrase "lost his marbles"?
Er... Elgin saved them from almost certain destruction, picking thum up from the ruins of the parthenon. He did it with the permission of the Greek government, under the supervision on site of Greek officials. Under what law is the British Museum beholden to return them.
If I came to your house and found a painting you had thrown away in your trash and asked if I could have it and you said yes, would your great grandson have any legal right to demand it back from my family in 60 years?
If they were stolen, they should be returned to the Ottomans.
They ought to simply clean up their air pollution. The Parthenon is visible from much of the city and encasing it would be something akin to encasing the Statue of Liberty.
I wouldn't have a problem putting a roof over the thing. The place is a ruin. :)
It's dramatically perched atop a high cliff over the ocean and it just drops your jaw to see it from a distance. Up close, it looks kinda beat up, but it isn't exactly a spring chicken.
That might be true if the Greek people had been in a position to care about the marbles at the time.
I must do more research, since this is the era where re-writing history is not only common, but seen as an "obligation" by the more "progressive" members of academia.
As I remember it, the Elgin Marbles were in the process of being ground and sold for mortar at the time they were purchased. All of the remaining building where they came from was, in fact ground for mortar. Had the Elgin Marbles not been purchased, there is zero chance that they would now exist. How that translates to stolen property... and ..rightful owners... can only be the product of a deranged, selective "progressive" mind.
I don't think so. Unless I'm completely misinformed, these marbles decorated the exterior top of the Parthenon, which is definitely still standing.
Went up to Delphi to consult the Oracle, but she was out of town that day. Went to Delos next, but they were all out playing with the dolphins someplace. Maybe they all took retirement. A person could retire there.
Temple of Poseidon
Here's a photo of that temple.
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