The classical parthenon : Recovering the Strangeness of the Ancient World / William St Clair.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clair, William St, author.

Contributor:

Barnes, Lucy, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Parthenon (Athens, Greece).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 325 pages)

Other Title:

Classical Parthenon

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Open Book Publishers, 2022.

Language Note:

English.

Summary:

Complementing Who Saved the Parthenon? this companion volume sets aside more recent narratives surrounding the Athenian Acropolis, supposedly 'the very symbol of democracy itself', instead asking if we can truly access an ancient past imputed with modern meaning. And, if so, how? In this book William St Clair presents a reconstructed understanding of the Parthenon from within the classical Athenian worldview. He explores its role and meaning by weaving together a range of textual and visual sources into two innovative oratorical experiments - a speech in the style of Thucydides and a first-century CE rhetorical exercise - which are used to develop a narrative analysis of the temple structure, revealing a strange story of indigeneity, origins, and empire. The Classical Parthenon offers new answers to old questions, such as the riddle of the Parthenon frieze, and provides a framing device for the wider relationship between visual artefacts, built heritage, and layers of accumulated cultural rhetoric. This groundbreaking and pertinent work will appeal across the disciplines to readers interested in the classics, art history, and the nature of history, while also speaking to a general audience that is interrogating the role of monuments in contemporary society.

Contents:

Editors' Note ix

Preface xi

1. Recovering the Strangeness 1

Studying a Strange World 5

Recovering Ancient Attitudes to Religion 10

Myths, Origin Stories and the 'Emergence from Brutishness' Narrative 17

Viewing Light and Time 30

Looking In / Looking Out: Experiments in Recovering the Strangeness 45

2. 'How do we set straight our sacred city?' 69

A Reflection on this Experiment 163

3. Looking at the Parthenon in Classical Athens 165

Stories Told in Stone 174

Making the Mute Stones Speak: The Role of the Viewer 189

4. A New Answer to an Old Question 193

The Scene Above the East Door 205

Recovering the Ancient Meanings of the Ion Myth 238

5. 'On the Temple dedicated to the Divine Minerva, vulgarly called the Parthenon' 253

A Note on the Second Experiment 284

6. Heritage 287

Bibliography 293

Illustrations 313

Index 317.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Open Book Publishers, viewed March 29, 2023).

ISBN:

1-80064-345-4