The Parthenon sculptures set out to present an Athenian universe made up of gods, heroes and mortals, woven together in complex scenes drawn from myth and daily life.
帕台农雕像表现了一个由神、英雄与凡人组成的雅典,日常生活与神话传说中的场景穿插在一起,
They are, I think, some of the most moving and uplifting sculptures ever made.
我认为这是世上最动人、最振奋人心的一组雕刻。
They've become so familiar, and have shaped so much of European thinking, that it's hard now to recover their original impact.
它们早已深人人心,极大地塑造了欧洲人的思维,因此很难再去了解它们最初产生的影响。
But at the time of their making they were a quite new vision of what it meant, intellectually and physically, to be human and, indeed, Athenian.
但在制作之初,它们对人类,尤其是对雅典人来说,不管从生理上还是心理上,一定都是种全新的意义阐释。
They're the first, and supreme, achievements of a new visual language.
它们是空前的新型视觉语言,是至高无上的成就。
Here's Olga Palagia, Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Athens:
雅典大学古典考古学教授奥尔加帕拉吉亚教授描述道:
"The idea of the new style was to create a new equilibrium between the human body, and the human movement and the garments.
这种新风格是要在人物形体、动作与服装之间创造出新的平衡…
The effort was to achieve the perfect proportions of the human body which were not there before.
它创造了完美的人体比例。
The key word for the new classical style is harmony and balance
其关键点在于和谐与平衡。
that is why the sculptures of the Parthenon are so timeless, because the figures they created are indeed timeless."
这是帕台农雕像魅力永恒的原因,因为由此创造出的人物形象确实是不朽的。
The sculptures were of course made at a very particular time and with a very particular purpose.
但事实上,雕像制作于一个特定的时期,目的也很明确。
The Parthenon was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos, meaning Athena the Virgin.
它们概括表现了当时社会的自我认知。帕台农是一座献给雅典娜帕台农女神(意为雅典娜处女神)的神庙。