Phidias, in Something Past Neon

Comparisons are not invidious,
If we reserve our precious odium
To aim intently at the podium,
Comparing something made by Phidias
To – what's that made of? That's just hideous.
Add all the elements, from sodium
Until you get as far as rhodium:
Not quite alarming, but insidious.

Who made this statue of a long-lost Greek,
Whose own great long-lost statues stood so tall?
Enormous Zeus, destined one day to fall,
The Parthenon Athena, now oblique,
Now gone. If history won't learn to speak,
Let's all be silent, still in beauty's thrall.