The Classical Parthenon Recovering the Strangeness of the Ancient World

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. This open book is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND). You can download The Classical Parthenon ebook for free in PDF