Battle of the Centaurs
(Centaurs Make Trouble at the Wedding of King Pirithous)
There is a well known Greek and Roman legend from Greek Mythology. It is about the people of Lapithae who made the mistake of inviting Centaurs to the king's wedding. King Pirithous was getting married to Hippodamia. The centaurs had never had alcohol before and they quickly got drunk on the wine. They then tried to carry off the bride and the other women guests at the wedding. The men of Lapithae naturally fought back. At least one Lapithean and one centaur were killed. Eventually the humans won the battle and the centaurs who survived withdrew. Needless to say the centaurs were not invited to any more weddings.
On a much more serious note, in the real world, many (but not all) people who become alcoholics have a faulty gene that makes them not process alcohol like other people. The alcohol dumps into their blood stream and goes to their brain without being metabolized. People with the other type of gene at least partially break down alcohol before in gets to the blood stream. I guess the centaurs had the faulty gene.
The Parthenon had many that showed this story of the Battle of the Centaurs vs the People of Lapithae. Some of these metopes were removed 200 years ago and are now in the British museum. The Greeks are taking steps to preserve the others and are removing them from the Parthenon and placing them in a new museum. I THINK the Greeks are planning on restoring all the outside of the Parthenon and making replicas of the amazing metopes. Metopes are a kind of statue that is carved sort of into a wall or made to be placed against a wall. . . You might notice that since these are coloring pages for primarily kids it seemed appropriate to put clothes on the people of Lapithae. They are nude in the sculpture . . . or nearly nude. There were a lot more of these statues / metopes. I hope they will be able to preserve them and restore the Parthenon.
Centaur vs Lapithian
Centaur tries to carry off the bride
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