The Parthenon Frieze

Joan B. Connelly's re-interpretation of the Parthenon frieze appears in the American Journal of Archaeology, AJA 100 [1996] 53-80. Here is an uncritical summary of her arguments, followed by a few questions... C's solution begins with the "peplos" panel on the east frieze. She holds that it represents the mythical king Erechtheus, together with his wife Praxithea and their three daughters. Our main Athenian source for this myth consists of the fragments of Euripides' play Erechtheus. One large fragment is preserved by the orator Lycurgus (Against Leocrates, 101) and another is preserved on papyrus (Sorbonne 2328 = Recherches de Papyr. 4, 1967, pp. 11-67). The myth can be reconstructed as follows: Erechtheus' new city is threatened by a rival, Eumolpus the son of Poseidon (whose gift of a spring was rejected in favor of Athena's olive). Delphi says Erechtheus must sacrifice his daughter to save the city. The three girls make a pact that if one of them must die they will all die. The youngest is sacrificed and the city wins the battle, though Erechtheus himself is swallowed by an earthquake; the other girls will die later. Athena directs the queen, Praxithea, to honor the dead girls with a sacred precinct on the Acropolis.

Some historians believe that Athens concluded a peace treaty with Persia in 449, two years before work began on the Parthenon. The significance of this would be that the Delian League/Athenian Empire continued to exist, even after the reason for its existence (a mutual defense league against the Persians) had ceased to be valid. In other words it was now openly acknowledged that Athens was not just the head of the Greek defense league but actually an imperial master over other Greek states. The decision by the Athenians in 454 BC to move the League treasury from the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delos to the Athenian acropolis points in the same direction. Because the Parthenon was built with League funds, the building may be read as an expression of the confidence of the Athenians in this newly naked imperialism. But the piety of this undertaking should not be underestimated; the Persians had sacked the temples on the Athenian acropolis in 480, and rebuilding them fulfilled, in Bury's words, the Athenians' "debt of gratitude to heaven for the defeat of the Mede."

From 1996, but I didn't find it on FR.

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