The Parthenon Enigma: A New Understanding of the West's Most Iconic Building and the People Who Made It by Joan Breton Connelly, 352 pages
The
iconic Parthenon was built on the Acropolis of Athens in the golden age
of Pericles as a temple to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, replacing
earlier temples built on the site. It has since served successively as a
Christian church, a mosque, a powder magazine, and as a picturesque
ruin. It was as this last that it captivated nineteenth century
neo-classicists, who interpreted the building as a shrine to Reason and
the center of a rationally ordered society.
It is
Connelly's contention that this is a fundamental misreading of the
nature and purpose of the structure. She contends that the site on
which the Parthenon stands was believed by the ancients to be the
location of the grave of the daughters of the legendary king Erechtheus,
sacrificed to Athena by their parents to ensure the city's survival.
It was in this context, the commemoration of a terrible, bloody
sacrifice made for the common good, that the Athenians processed to the
Acropolis during the annual festival of the Panathenaia, binding the
populace together with sacred bonds of self-denial. Only with this
spirit could the Athenian democracy survive and flourish.
Doubtless,
Connelly's thesis is controversial. Nor is her evidence entirely
compelling - there is a great deal of speculation here, and no clinching
argument or piece of evidence. Still, this is a serious thesis that
deserves serious consideration and discussion.
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