Lapith Metope

Acropolis Museum- Athens

This is a metope, decorative part of a temple, that depicts a Lapith and a Greek. In mythology there is said to have been a war that broke out between the Greeks and the Lapiths. The Greeks won the war, so there are depictions of this war seen in various temples. The Greeks believed their civilization was the highest form of sophistication and so the victory over the Lapiths represents triumph of the Greek way aka the civilized way and its triumph over barbarianism. This goes to show how the Greeks saw themselves as civilized and more cultured than peoples. Looking back at art work such as this one, it is not difficult to see why they might have thought this. I think it is remarkable how the sculpture of this metope was able to depict such a complex angle in a three dimensional format!