The Parthenon Enigma by Joan Breton Connelly

This book is beyond fascinating.  What I thought would be a detailed architectural analysis of the Parthenon, along with perhaps a history of its construction, has gone far further into much wider fields.

The book places the Parthenon at the very core of religious life in Athens.  But it goes further in exquisite detail to explain how the building personifies Athenian life, tying together all aspects of society.  Yes, religion, and of course democracy, but also family, devotion, mythology, history, drama, literature, sports, war, diplomacy and commerce.  The Parthenon brings it all together.

Connelly details a new theory on the subject matter of the famous frieze that encircles the interior of the Parthenon.  She provides a detailed hypothesis that the central figure is Erechtheus, the founding king of Athens, along with his wife Praxithea and their three daughters.  She places them at the very center of the frieze, at the east end of the Parthenon.

She makes the case that their prominence in the frieze is due to Erechtheus' and Praxithea's sacrifice of their eldest daughter, at the bidding of the Oracle of Delphi, in order to vanquish the invading Thracian army of Eumolpus, the mythical son of Poseidon.

This ultimate sacrifice is at the core of Athenian culture, the notion that self-sacrifice to the greater good of Athens is a joint responsibility of all Athenians.  And that is why their portrayal lies at the center of the Parthenon frieze.

Connelly goes further to state that this is why democracy actually took root first in Athens.  Because its citizens were committed to the greater good, to making sacrifices large and small to the benefit of everyone in their city.

She states that this commitment created binding trust between all Athenians that made democracy work.  If you trust your neighbors to make the right decisions for all, then you trust in the democratic process.

Anyhow, this is another example of exactly the type of book I need to read more.  Detailed analysis of very specific subjects.  

Amazing book.

Citations of interest:

"Democracy had taken form for the first time in human history precisely because of the profound and all-pervading sense of a common Athenian ancestry, one that originated in the mists of the Bronze Age, the sons of Erechtheus—of Athena herself—all belonging to the land."

"All were pledged to the good of the polis, and by extension that of one another, and by that mutual understanding popular rule could be trusted."

"That the very founding family of Athens, from whom all are descended, could not put itself above the common good speaks to a radical egalitarianism, not in circumstances, but in responsibility, the very antithesis of the barbarian sentiment that society exists for the exaltation of its most exalted members. All may not be equal in Athens, but all are equal in relation to this sacred trust, which comes of being bound to the same earth and to one another by birth. And this trust in one another is what permitted the delicate plant of democracy to take root."

"We are conditioned to experience “ruins” as static and unchanging, and so it is hard to grasp the vibrancy of ritual in action, the motion that once invigorated the placid scenes that we see today. We instinctively focus on the buildings when, in fact, the action took place in the spaces left between them."

"The Greeks did not even have a separate word for religion, since there was no area of life that it did not permeate.  Religion was embedded in everything."