AP Television

London, UK - 24 March 2015

1. Wide of 'River God Ilissos' marble sculpture, Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC) in foreground and Diskobolos (disc-thrower) sculpture, 2nd century Roman marble copy in background on display at the British Museum's new 'Defining Beauty' exhibition

2. Tilt up of 'River God Ilissos' marble sculpture

3. Various of 'Diskobolos' (disc-thrower) marble sculpture, 2nd century Roman marble copy

4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator, British Museum:

"For the Greeks, the body was a sign of their culture and the Greek experience involved representations of the human body in virtually every aspect of what it meant to be Greek. So a body could be a sign of the stars, or the moon, or the sun, or the waves, or ideas of justice, and revenge or persuasion."

5. Wide of two marble sculptures of 'Messenger Goddess Iris', Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC) on left and Lycia, west coast of Turkey (390-380BC) on right

6. Tilt down of 'Messenger Goddess Iris' marble sculpture, Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC)

7. Close pull focus of 'Messenger Goddess Iris' marble sculpture, Lycia, west coast of Turkey (390-380BC)

8. Tilt up of 'Messenger Goddess Iris' marble sculpture, Lycia, west coast of Turkey (390-380BC)

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator, British Museum:

"In Greek minds, when you remove the monarchy and institute a democracy there is suddenly freedom of thought and freedom of investigation of the human condition. And it was in Athens in the fifth century BC that we went from a tyranny to democracy in an extraordinary short period of time and in that process of conversion of political thought there was a nurturing of social and philosophical ideas that would portray man as the measure."

10. Various of 'Hermaphroditos' marble sculpture, Rome, Italy (1st-2nd century AD)

11. Various of 'Aphrodite' marble sculpture, Rome, Italy (2nd century copy based on lost 3rd or 2nd century BC Greek statue)

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator, British Museum:

"The Greeks embraced nudity in a way that other ancient civilisations didn't so they were intentionally-interested in how the body looks when you take its clothes off. Except, there is an important distinction to be made between naked and nude. Naked for the Greeks is an accident when you suddenly find yourselves without your clothes on unintentionally or where you are indulging in some kind of noble lewd behaviour, but nude is an intended costume or uniform that you put on when you take off your clothes and it becomes the uniform of the righteous."

13. Various of 'Centaur and Lapith' marble sculpture, Parthenon Temple, Greece (447-438BC)

14. Various of 'River God Ilissos' marble sculpture, Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC)

15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator, British Museum:

"When I look at the surface of the Ilissos, it is always mobile, the eye cannot rest. It is always moving and simulating the idea of water flowing across and over his body."

16. Various of nude athlete bronze sculpture discovered in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia in 1999, made in Greece (around 300BC)

17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Celeste Farge, Project Curator, British Museum:

"Life-size bronze statues are extremely rare. In late antiquity, bronze was valued more as scrap metal than as art and they were melted down to use, for example, as weapons."

18. Various close shots of nude athlete bronze sculpture discovered in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia in 1999, made in Greece (around 300BC)

19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Celeste Farge, Project Curator, British Museum:

"Looking at this statue we are transported to the wrestling school. We're looking at an athlete, he's known as the 'Apoxyomenos' which means scraper, and he would have been holding a 'strigil' that's a scraper for cleaning the oil, dust and sweat after one's body after exercise."

20. Various of horsemen marble frieze, Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC)

21. Various of 'Goddess Athena' bronze statue, Greece (450-440BC)

22. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator, British Museum:

"I think there is a great overlap between current body culture and the Greek idea of the body, in that we tattoo and pierce and extraordinarily drape and costume our body in ways in which in antiquity people also did depending on the circumstances. But the nudity is something very peculiar to Greece and to Greece at a particular time. It's a sign of the citizen body, it's a sign of the male club that rules Athens."

23. Various of nymph marble sculpture, Roman period (2nd century AD)

24. Various of Belvedere Torso marble sculpture (1st century BC Roman copy based on Greek bronze 2nd century BC sculpture)

25. Wide of 'Dionysos' marble sculpture by Pheidias, Parthenon Temple, Greece (438-432BC)

26. Tilt up of 'Dionysos' sculpture

27. Wide of British Museum exterior

28. Wide of people exiting museum

29. Wide of exhibition poster on display outside museum

Today it's seen as a symbol of sex or perhaps even embarrassment, but to the ancient Greeks the nude body could mean almost anything, from the moon to the stars.

At London's British Museum, a new exhibition has opened which includes six sculptures from the controversial Parthenon collection, showing how the Greeks shaped our understanding of ourselves.

"Man is the measure of all things," wrote Greek philosopher Protagoras in the 5th century BC, and that was certainly the case when it came to sculptures.

At London's British Museum, a new exhibition has been unveiled which examines the Greek preoccupation with the body, and the influence sculptures have had on artists for centuries.

It includes six sculptures from the controversial Parthenon Temple, including this marble realisation of the 'River God Ilissos' by ancient Greek sculptor Phidias.

The three great sculptors of the age - Myron, Polykleitos and Phidias - are thought to have all been trained in the workshop of one single master, each tried to outdo the other.

Ilissos is flanked by two sculptures it's considered to have influenced, including this Roman copy of a Greek disc-thrower by Myron, it's construction based on precise, calculated philosophical ratios.

This is the first time six Parthenon sculptures have been taken out of the British Museum's permanent exhibition and placed into a temporary one.

"For the Greeks, the body was a sign of their culture and the Greek experience involved representations of the human body in virtually every aspect of what it meant to be Greek," says Ian Jenkins, a senior curator from the British Museum.

"So a body could be a sign of the stars, or the moon, or the sun, or the waves, or ideas of justice, and revenge or persuasion."

Previous cultures - and in fact many that followed it - turned their noses up at the Greek fascination with the nude body - the Egyptians, Syrians, Persians and Cypriots to name a few.

According to Jenkins, their freedom to create and find meaning in sculpture was born from democracy.

Fifth century Athens was the world's first democracy, it's thought political development was accompanied by a new focus on art and thought.

"In Greek minds, when you remove the monarchy and institute a democracy there is suddenly freedom of thought and freedom of investigation of the human condition," says Jenkins.

"And it was in Athens in the fifth century BC that we went from a tyranny to democracy in an extraordinary short period of time and in that process of conversion of political thought there was a nurturing of social and philosophical ideas that would portray man as the measure."

This allowed them to make all-manner of unclothed creations which explored themes such as gender and sexuality.

This Roman marble sculpture shows 'Hermaphtoditos', created when a water-nymph fell in love with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite.

Their embrace united them together, fusing them into a single being with both male and female genitalia.

There's also 'Aphrodite' the goddess of love, the only female Olympian deity to be shown naked.

"The Greeks embraced nudity in a way that other ancient civilisations didn't so they were intentionally-interested in how the body looks when you take its clothes off," says Jenkins.

"Except, there is an important distinction to be made between naked and nude. Naked for the Greeks is an accident when you suddenly find yourselves without your clothes on unintentionally or where you are indulging in some kind of noble lewd behaviour, but nude is an intended costume or uniform that you put on when you take off your clothes and it becomes the uniform of the righteous."

It was so righteous, even the Gods wore it.

This marble Parthenon frieze from between 447 and 438BC shows a Centaur - part man, part horse - battling with a human Lapith from Northern Greece.

The exhibition itself contains around 150 objects, including vases, terracotta works and bronze sculptures.

But according to Jenkins, the true star is the Phidias sculpture of the 'River God Ilissos', the gliding lines showing water lapping around his torso as he pulls himself onto a rock.

"When I look at the surface of the Ilissos, it is always mobile, the eye cannot rest," says Jenkins.

"It is always moving and simulating the idea of water flowing across and over his body."

But the 'Ilissos' isn't the only important work, the exhibition also features this newly-discovered bronze statue which was raised from the seabed in Losinj, Croatia in 1999.

It's the first time it's ever been displayed in the UK and incredibly rare, according to British Museum project curator, Celeste Farge.

"Life-size bronze statues are extremely rare," she says.

"In late antiquity, bronze was valued more as scrap metal than as art and they were melted down to use, for example, as weapons."

"Looking at this statue we are transported to the wrestling school. We're looking at an athlete, he's known as the 'Apoxyomenos' which means scraper, and he would have been holding a 'strigil' that's a scraper for cleaning the oil, dust and sweat after one's body after exercise."

From this hulking Parthenon frieze of several horsemen to this bronze reconstruction of Greek goddess 'Athena', the confidence with which the Greeks displayed the nude human body seems at odds with today's prudish standards.

Not so, according to Jenkins, he says there are still lines to drawn between the way we decorate and clothe ourselves.

"I think there is a great overlap between current body culture and the Greek idea of the body, in that we tattoo and pierce and extraordinarily drape and costume our body in ways in which in antiquity people also did depending on the circumstances," he says.

"But the nudity is something very peculiar to Greece and to Greece at a particular time. It's a sign of the citizen body, it's a sign of the male club that rules Athens."

By the end of the 1st century BC, Greece formed part of the Roman Empire.

The Romans became captivated by Greek culture, collecting and making copies of famed Greek sculptures.

The exhibition ends with a standoff, the 'Belvedere Torso' - a Roman copy of a Greek bronze statue from 2nd century BC - faces the figure of God of Wine 'Dionysos', taken from the Parthenon Temple's east pediment.

Michelangelo's admiration of the 'Belvedere Torso' assured its fame and by the 18th century the broken fragment was regarded as a work of genius.

Before sculptures such as those from the Parthenon collection arrived in London in the early 1800s, Greek art could often only be viewed through Roman copies.

Figures such as 'Dionysos' mean that's no longer the case.

'Defining Beauty: the body in ancient Greek art' runs 26 March - 5 July at London's British Museum.