[MSN] U.K. / Greece. Fear and fury among the Marbles.

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Fear and fury among the Marbles 
By Trevor Timpson 
BBC News  


The Elgin Marbles in the British Museum are marvellous - but they're a bit,
well, colourless , aren't they? 
That isn't how it was for the ancient Greeks. The sculptures were painted in
vivid colour. High up on the sides of the Parthenon temple in Athens, they
had to be. 

Now a new film on permanent show in the room next to the Marbles adds the
colour - and the fear and the violence. 

"When we started to apply the colour it brought a lot of the emotion to
life," says Dyfri Williams, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the
British Museum. 

The film reconstructs one of the metopes - the 92 carved fight scenes that
ran around the outside wall - using computer technology. 

"What you probably hadn't been able to see" in the scene of a centaur
hitting a youth with a pot has finally come alive, says Mr Williams. 


"The madness of the centaur comes out and the terror of the youth comes out.


"We hope to put that little film into our internet site - the message about
colour on the sculpture is so important; it changes people's perception so
much that we should have it there." 


 This has got to be a collaborative process... such special sculpture's for
everyone 
Dyfri Williams, British Museum  

The subject of the film, south metope no. 4, mirrors the troubles that all
the Parthenon sculptures have gone through. 



Most of the metopes were defaced by Christians from the 6th Century AD on,
when the Parthenon was turned into a church. Those on the south side,
depicting a battle between centaurs and humans, escaped - presumably they
were thought to convey some suitable Christian message. 

But the Parthenon was damaged catastrophically in 1687 when a Venetian army
shelled the Acropolis and the Parthenon blew up - the Turkish garrison was
using it as a powder magazine.