The word 'marbles' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to small round glass balls used as a game or as an adjective to describe something that looks like small round glass balls. For example: "The artist carefully placed the marbles in a pattern to create the mosaic."
"There are no legal grounds for the return of the marbles," averred Harry Tzalas, a historian who first advised Melina Mercouri on the issue.
You can ladle all the meaning on to it you like – and the sight and sound of middle England collectively losing its marbles for a Somali-born, west London-raised man of the people was something to behold – but at its core this was simply an imperious sporting feat.
Related: Parthenon marbles are miracles of sculpture symbolic of Greek nationhood In an about-turn three months after Athens' radical-left Syriza party assumed power, the new Greek cultural minister Nikos Xydakis said the route to retrieving the treasures lay in diplomatic and political channels and not international courts where outcomes were far from assured.
Over the course of the film's 92 minutes, we see the residents of the three camps performing a play, singing songs, playing marbles, preparing balls of dough and engaging in other leisure activities.
Greece has ruled out taking legal action in its battle to reclaim the Parthenon marbles from Britain.
The legal study suggested that Athens make a formal request for the marbles' repatriation before submitting a legal claim to the international court at The Hague if the request was turned down as expected.
Successive polls have shown that in contrast to their government, the vast majority of Britons would like to see the marbles returned to the place where they were carved more than 2,500 years ago.
Once proud to be the natural party of government, they have not only lost their marbles but they are throwing them at each other.
When that failed and the goalposts were perceived to have been moved again – with British Museum trustees saying exhibiting the marbles in London "allows different complementary stories to be told about them" – Greece resorted to diplomatic channels.
The new UK government was "completely unreceptive" to the very idea of returning the marbles, Taylor said.
In the past Athens has offered all manner of cultural gems in exchange for the marbles.
