Statues in Greece after the Romans Conquered it.

[Artimi]

Siblings of mine journeyed to Greece and their guide was in theory a practising archeaologist.

She told them that statues made by Romans in Greece were headless because the Romans thought the Greeks were so beautiful, they couldn't compete?

 

I thought this was hogwash, right?

 

she did show me some pictures of statues with heads missing and it looked like the heads had been crudely chopped off.

 

Help!

[Number Six]

Wait what?

So why are Roman statues in Rome also headless? The Greeks chopped them on revenge?

Edited November 16, 2013 by Number Six

[Artimi]

I have no idea,

 

This Greek 'archeologist' said the statues were created headless. I wasnt there.. I did try to dispute this but was told why would some one say that especially if she (the guide) was an archaeologist.

 

I just hate misinformation told to tourist and they accept it..Unfortunately I dont have the guide's name so I can google it.

 

I will try to get it so I can google just for my own research.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Artimi

[Number Six]

This Greek 'archeologist' said the statues were created headless. I wasnt there.. I did try to dispute this but was told why would some one say that especially if she (the guide) was an archaeologist.

 

Like I told you in PM, guides often say what tourists wanna hear: gossip. And as always, some gossip is true, some is not.

Also, the fact that he's an archeologist (although self-proclaimed, I guess: it's not like they checked his papers ), doesn't mean that he's a mastermind: also people with higher education do happen to believe hilarious things.

Anyway, the siblings of yours should learn one thing if they wanna deal with history: we must always be able to check the source of our information. In this case we weren't put in the condition to do so. We were just told... by a touristic guide.

But one thing your siblings did do well: if we cannot check the source, we should ask ourselves: why did this person say this thing? And I told you my opinion on that.

In the end, it's also possible that there is anecdotal evidence that something like this once happened. The guide transformed it into a general fact.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Number Six

[GhostOfClayton]

Tour Guides are a varied lot, with a very varied remit. We can lead tours where our role is to tell people about stuff, or tours where we're purely there to look after the clients and make sure they have a safe and enjoyable (in that order) holiday/day out. . . . And obviously most tours fall on a point between those two extremes. It's always worth bearing in mind that 99.9% of punters have only a non-academic interest in what they're seeing, and are there to be entertained. We aren't lecturers, we're story tellers, and I feel it's ok to give a more entertaining version of the truth. That said, it has to be soundly based in truth, and not a total fairy tale about headless statues. Sadly, Tour Guides' notes are a great place for perpetuating that kind of hogwash (good choice of word, Artimi). If a story sounds good, Tour Guides will put it in the notes for future guides, and future Tour Guides will read it, like it, and tell it. It would be great if all Tour Guides had an academic background, and verified their sources, but they don't.

Edited November 17, 2013 by GhostOfClayton