The viral plea of a Caryatid: I want to go home

A abbreviated video has precocious gone viral connected societal media, reminding the satellite of 1 of the astir achy taste dislocations successful history: the solitary Caryatid, torn from her sisters successful the Acropolis Museum successful Athens and confined to the cold, soulless confines of the Duveen Gallery successful the British Museum successful London.

The producers of the video authorities that, with AI’s assistance, they envision the stolen Caryatid breaking escaped from the British Museum and reuniting with her sisters astatine the Acropolis Museum.

The video itself resonates due to the fact that it captures not conscionable a statue, but a profound injustice.

When Lord Elgin and his men dismantled the Parthenon successful the aboriginal 19th century, they besides removed 1 of the Caryatids from the structure of the Erechtheion, a temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena Polias (Athena of the City) which is located straight other the Parthenon atop the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis.

Early travellers to Athens were outraged, not lone astatine the dismemberment of the Parthenon’s frieze and metopes, but astatine the usurpation of the ineffable harmony of the Caryatid porch.  One figure, 1 face, 1 beingness was wrenched away, and the coiled remains unfastened 2 centuries later.

Art historiographer Maria Brouskari erstwhile described the Caryatid structure arsenic “justifiably 1 of the champion known monuments of antiquity successful the world: the maidens regard with festive expressions connected the visitant to the Acropolis.”

Today, that regard is fractured.  In the Acropolis Museum, 5 Caryatids basal proudly, yet the bare abstraction near by curators for their missing sister is simply a soundless outcry for reunification.  As visitors locomotion done the gallery, the lack is palpable.  It is simply a quiescent but almighty reminder that 1 inactive stands apart.

The solitary Caryatid successful the British Museum, arsenic a almighty awesome of taste dispossession, has besides been captured successful art, books, protest, philharmonic performance, photography and different media due to the fact that it tells a self-evident truth: the Caryatid is not an isolated entity oregon artwork but a surviving portion of a whole.  Divided, the caryatids are diminished; reunited, they would reconstruct dignity and meaning to 1 of the astir iconic ensembles of Classical Antiquity.

Technology has already been utilized to springiness dependable to this lack arsenic portion of the missing Caryatid’s hugely emblematic value successful the run for the instrumentality of the alleged Elgin Marbles.  At the Athens International Airport, an interactive show greets arriving passengers with the representation of the Caryatid porch, inviting travellers to ballot “yes” to reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. The run has captured the sentiment of millions.

Street creation successful Athens has besides highlighted the predicament of the solitary Caryatid with a salient and melodramatic enactment precocious completed successful Ermou Street.

The viral video is the latest section successful this agelong story.

It resonates precisely due to the fact that it translates humanities grievance into a simple, relatable quality feeling.  We recognise, instinctively, that the Caryatid belongs with her sisters. The run is not astir abstract ownership but astir integrity and astir restoring a sculptural masterpiece to its archetypal wholeness and setting.

The accompanying lament of the solitary Caryatid is arsenic poignant:

For centuries, I stood alone

A alien successful a overseas hall

My marble bosom aching for the voices I erstwhile knew

I listened to footsteps, whispers I a tongue, not my own, but ne'er my sisters’ laughter

I dreamed of the Aegean Sun, of the metropolis wherever my psyche was carved from stone

And present I americium home

The Acropolis rises earlier me, my sisters beside me.

Together again, we look the sky.

Unbroken and eternal

The Return Re-Imagined (courtesy of Αθηνολόγιο)

The Caryatid’s meaning cannot beryllium afloat realised successful isolation.  In the Acropolis Museum, she would erstwhile again beryllium portion of the architectural and spiritual unity for which she was created.

It is clip for the missing Caryatid to instrumentality home.

George Vardas is the Arts and Culture Editor and is besides a civilization practice advisor and advocator for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures