Metope

From the ancient Greek word “meta” for “between" and “ope” for “opening,” metopes are the square or rectangular spaces between the triglyphs in the Doric frieze. Like triglyphs, metopes are vestiges of wooden construction: the triglyphs represent the roof-supporting beams, while the metopes replace the open spaces between them. Doric metopes often held paintings or sculptures, and sometimes those decorative elements told a story, like an architectural version of a film strip. Among the 92 metopes along the Parthenon frieze in Athens is a series depicting battles between between the half-man, half-horse centaurs and the Lapiths, a tribe based in Thessaly in central Greece.