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Centaur World for the Athenians would have meant not just the Persian Empire, but other competing Greek city states, and above all, Sparta, with whom Athens was frequently at war.
对雅典人而言，“半人马”的世界还不只是波斯帝国，也包括了其他敌对的希腊域邦，尤其是斯巴达，他们与雅典频繁开战。
The struggle against the Centaurs that we see on the metopes becomes an emblem of the perpetual battle that, for the Athenians, every civilised state has to fight.
排档间饰上与半人马的战争成为一种永恒的战斗的象征。对雅典人而言，每个文明的城邦都需要战斗。
Rational man has to keep struggling against brute irrationality.
理智的人们需要不断抗争野蛮的非理性。
Dehumanising your enemy like this takes you down a dangerous path, but it's a magnificent rallying call if you're waging war.
将对手非人化是条危险的路，但如果你要发动战争，这会成为极佳的民众动员令。
If chaos is to be kept at bay, so the message goes, reason will have to fight un-reason again and again.
它所传达的信息是：要想避免混乱，就一直要用理性去战胜非理性。
But I chose this particular sculpture because it gives us the bitter insight that, in the short-term, reason does not always prevail.
而我之所以挑选了这幅浮雕，是因为它传达了一个令人痛苦的信息，即以短期而论，理性并非总能获胜。
The defence of the rationally ordered state will cost some of its citizens their lives.
为保卫理性规范的城邦，有的公民会献出自己的生命。
And yet - and this is why this sculpture is such a supreme achievement - the dying human body is shown with such pathos, the fierce struggle depicted with such balance, that the victory goes not to the strutting half-beast, but to the Athenian artist who can turn conflict into beauty.
然而，雕像上垂死的人形表现得如此苦痛，剧烈的战斗被刻画得如此协调——这也正是雕像具有如此高的艺术价值的原因所在一以至于取得最后胜利的并非趾高气扬的半人，而是能把冲突转化为趋的雅典艺术家。
In the long-run of things, this sculpture seems to say, intellect and reason alone can create things that endure.
这件雕像仿佛在告诉我们，从长远来看，智慧与理性二者本身便能创造出经得起时间考验的事物。
The victory is not just political: it is artistic and intellectual.
这不仅是政治上的胜利，也是艺术与智慧的胜利。
This is all very high-minded stuff, but what did the Parthenon look like if you came from one of the other Greek cities?
这是雅典人的视角。那希腊其他城邦的居民又是如何看待帕台农神庙的呢？
