The Parthenon

The print the paperback book is too small - please give us a Kindle edition!!!

Like her earlier book, The Colosseum, this book by Mary Beard provides a good summary of the history and significance of a great old building. Also, like that book it suffers from the lack of color illustrations, but in this case the black and white illustrations are mostly of much better quality. The Parthenon has a quite fascinating and rich history: a thousand years as a pagan temple, another thousand years as a Christian church, and almost four hundred years as an Islamic mosque. It suffered both depredations and preservation under the ownership of Christians and Muslims. Like many ancient buildings, its survival to this day probably is due to its conversion to church and then mosque. Otherwise, almost certainly its valuable carvings and stonework would have been carted off wholesale long before it would have had a chance to be appreciated as an architectural treasure. Of course, much of the sculpture was carted off by various collectors, most notably the notorious Lord Elgin. But at least these “Elgin Marbles” ended up in a safe place, the British Museum, where they are well cared for and accessible to the public. But the Greeks want them back! And the Greeks have an even better place, the new Acropolis Museum, to show the world these ancient works of art. Mary Beard covers the controversy over ownership of the Parthenon sculptures in Chapter Six of this book. Although she’s a Brit, she tries to take a neutral stance in this political and cultural brawl, but I sense that she favors keeping them where they are.

A very readable and informative book by the world's greatest classicist about the cradle of Western Civilization the Parthenon. I have been to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum and have viewed the Elgin marbles many times at the British Museum and can testify that Professor Beard hits the mark on each of these places. She even solved a mystery for me about an orange color on some of the marbles that I thought was a problem caused by my camera. The color really exists on some of the pieces and she explains what it is. I read this book in the depths of winter and I yearn for my return to the Parthenon and the Acropolis Museum this spring with a now enlightened eye for detail.

Easy read filled with plethora of little known facts , very good book!

After reternuing from athens I bought the book .Really amazing help me a lot to understand better what I saw

I am surprised at some of the reviews. Being this one about my tenth book "on the Parthenon", it is not about the temple as such, but as how people felt, along the times, when they saw the Parthenon, and about the eternal disagreement on the Elgin friezes.Very boring and a true waste of time and money if you want a book on the temple itself.

I am in Athens and have a hard copy of the book at home. I can't find the book at either of the two big bookstores in Athens, nor at any of the museums, nor at the travelers bookshops. Can the publisher PLEASE make it available on Kindle? And WHY isn't it available at the new Acropolis museum?

Excellent review of the history of the Parthenon

This small book provides a quick and somewhat thorough history of the Parthenon of Athens. It is a highly readable book that presents this famous building in a non-chronological passage of time. The reader finishes the book wondering how such a beautiful monument actually survived, given the transformations it had to endure, some that actually preserved it while others nearly catastrophically dismantled it. The book also explains the controversy of the removal of the pediment marbles by Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century.As a structure that was initially built in the 400s BC, then possibly modified by the Romans, converted to a Christian church (and partially defaced to remove pagan symbols), taken over as a mosque under the Ottomans, blasted nearly to smithereens by the Venetians in 1687, used as a military installation by the Turks, some would say defiled by Lord Elgin and others, it is very amazing (and also tragic) that this building still stands today and inspires us through its presence. It is also gratifying to know that very strong initiatives are being taken to preserve and somewhat recapture the glory of the Parthenon today.I enjoy the author’s writing style and appreciate her approach to the subjects she presents. She is a historian and stays true to her profession, while being an entertaining author. This book also has numerous illustrations that support the text.

This extremely informative work is concise, well written and well organized. Without frills, it covers the eventful history of the Parthenon since Antiquity, including that of those sculptures relocated to London in the 19th century. Very up to date, it even describes the Acropolis Museum opened in 2009.Sadly, the lay-out is hopelessly traditional with strictly black and white illustrations set on separate pages from the text. Thankfully, the photos and diagrams are very well chosen. It is striking for instance to see that the Parthenon in the middle of the 19th century was actually much more of a ruin than late in the 20th century!This enthralling book is strongly recommended to all who have even only a remote interest in Ancient Greece or archaeology.