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Deep Frieze Meaning: What is the Parthenon telling us?
The Weekly Standard ^ | 9/8/2014 | A. E. STALLINGS

Posted on 09/02/2014 11:54:52 AM PDT by mojito

The Parthenon represents, for many, a golden age in human achievement: the 5th-century b.c. Greek flowering of democracy, sciences, and the arts. But what if its chief ornament, the Parthenon frieze, turned out to be not an embodiment of reason and proportion—of stillness at the heart of motion, quiet piety, and enlightened civic responsibility—but (or, rather, also) something darker, more primitive: a representation of the critical moment in an ancient story of a king at war, a human sacrifice, and a goddess’s demand for virgin blood?

That’s the argument at the heart of The Parthenon Engima. The plot involves not only ritual murder and burial, but fragments of a lost play of Euripides found on mummy wrappings. Even the title suggests a Dan Brown thriller.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Books/Literature; History
KEYWORDS: ancientgreece; athens; euripides; godsgravesglyphs; greece; pages; parthenon; parthenonenigma; theparthenonengima
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Review of the new book "The Parthenon Enigma: A New Understanding of the World’s Most Iconic Building and the People Who Made It," by Joan Breton Connelly.

Recommended for Greek or Classical history buffs.

1 posted on 09/02/2014 11:54:52 AM PDT by mojito
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To: SunkenCiv

Ping.


2 posted on 09/02/2014 11:57:36 AM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: mojito

Interesting. And I think rather persuasive.

We just need a couple of hundred more years for classical scholars to talk it over and weigh in on it—assuming that any classical scholars are left after these dismal times of repeated attacks on the Western tradition.


3 posted on 09/02/2014 12:28:59 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: mojito

Thanks, most interesting article!

For those who don’t know, there’s a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Nashville. Amazing sight. Somehow I didn’t realize it was so big.


4 posted on 09/02/2014 12:32:12 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins most of the battles. Reality wins ALL the wars.)
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To: Cicero

Once the Muslims are firmly entrenched in Athens — they will bust those pesky friezes into tiny little rocks.


5 posted on 09/02/2014 1:54:51 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a stBut is it grammatically catement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: mojito

No sale. Phidias the great architect designed the exterior of the Parthenon to be welcoming before awing the worshipping people with the powerful statue of Athens in side His statue of Zeus later was the same; a consummate presenter of the power of the old gods


6 posted on 09/02/2014 1:57:13 PM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: Jimmy Valentine
No sale. Phidias the great architect designed the exterior of the Parthenon to be welcoming before awing the worshipping people with the powerful statue of Athens in side

I think this fits with Connolly's theory. A statue of Athena, patron goddess of the city, was located inside the Parthenon. On the exterior, a pictorial about people giving their lives in defense of Athena's city - a familiar story. The combination is not only awe-inspiring, but also humbling and a reminder to all of their duty as Athenians.

Yes, it lacks the implied grandiose worship of the more common interpretation, but I don't see any real incongruity posed by Connolly's opinion.

7 posted on 09/02/2014 2:18:53 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Cicero

...assuming that any classical scholars are left after these dismal times of repeated attacks on the Western tradition.

***
Indeed.


8 posted on 09/02/2014 2:43:41 PM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
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To: BenLurkin

The Turks stored gunpowder in the Parthenon once. It blew up.


9 posted on 09/02/2014 2:48:08 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
"The Turks stored gunpowder in the Parthenon once. It blew up."

They turned it into a mosque, then they stored gunpowder in it. Seems like an idea that keeps getting repeated in the islamic world.

10 posted on 09/02/2014 3:14:07 PM PDT by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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To: mojito

I just finished Holland’s “Persian Fire”, a study of that era where the older temples on the Acropolis were destroyed by the Persian burning of Athens and leading up to just before the building of the Acropolis with the significance highly covered in the last chapter.

For those that are interested, I rate Holland’s book right at the top of those I have read in the last few years. It puts into context the 300, the Xerxes invasion in general and the Spartan / Athenian interplay that later caused them both to loose power after the Peloponnesian War, a period I have read a number of books about in the past.

If you want to understand how the Persian Empire and the Greeks were at odds, came to war and all the whole era was significant, that is a great source.


11 posted on 09/02/2014 3:23:52 PM PDT by KC Burke (Gowdy for Supreme Court)
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To: KC Burke

Thanks for the tip.


12 posted on 09/02/2014 4:26:25 PM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: mojito

13 posted on 09/03/2014 8:45:27 AM PDT by houeto (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate)
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Bump for later


14 posted on 09/03/2014 8:48:00 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: mojito

“The Parthenon Code” is another take on it by Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. Interesting interpretation in light of Scripture.


15 posted on 09/03/2014 8:52:30 AM PDT by SparkyBass
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

The Venetians were trying to capture Athens. They knew the Turks had stored gunpowder in the Parthenon so they deliberately targeted it until they blew the building up.


16 posted on 09/03/2014 9:01:27 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: BenLurkin
What's left of those pesky friezes are now safely in London. Although London may come under Muslim control sooner than Athens.

Not to worry--there are some nice replicas in Nashville.

17 posted on 09/03/2014 9:02:45 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: mojito

Great stuff, and thanks for posting. BTT


18 posted on 09/03/2014 9:10:42 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: mojito; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks mojito.


19 posted on 09/18/2014 7:52:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Salamander
"...something darker, more primitive: a representation of the critical moment in an ancient story of a king at war, a human sacrifice, and a goddess’s demand for virgin blood?"

Kewl, eh?

But is such a thing even possible?

(Yes, it is!)

20 posted on 09/19/2014 1:35:03 AM PDT by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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