"Wry and imaginative, this gem of a book deconstructs the most famous building in Western history." –Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic. "In her brief but compendious volume [Beard] says that the more we find out about this mysterious structure, the less we know. Her book is especially valuable because it is up to date on the restoration the Parthenon has been undergoing since 1986." –Gary Wills, New York Review of Books. At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial guide for tourists, armchair travelers, and amateur archaeologists alike, this book conducts readers through the storied past and towering presence of the most famous building in the world. In the revised version of her classic study, Mary Beard now includes the story of the long-awaited new museum opened in 2009 to display the sculptures from the building that still remain in Greece, as well as the controversies that have surrounded it, and asks whether it makes a difference to the "Elgin Marble debate."

The name of Pheidias and the renown of his sculptural masterpieces have resonated through the centuries. Pheidias’s works were endlessly copied by the Romans and his name was used to denote excellence well beyond Antiquity. His statue of Zeus at Olympia was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the Athena Parthenos has linked his name forever with the Parthenon and its sculptures. And yet there is no firm proof that any surviving original is by his hand. What can we know about Pheidias and his work? This book attempts to answer this question by presenting both the archaeological and the written evidence for the output of this remarkable artist. It assembles and assesses all the available material in order to provide insights into Pheidias’s contribution to the development of Greek sculpture. Full and illustrated discussions of the works associated with Pheidias are accompanied by catalogues of each statue type discussed. In addition, the relevant ancient sources are quoted, translated and commented upon.

The Parthenon Marbles (formerly known as the Elgin Marbles), designed and executed by Pheidias to adorn the Parthenon, are perhaps the greatest of all classical sculptures. In 1801, Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Turkish government, had chunks of the frieze sawn off and shipped to England, where they were subsequently seized by Parliament and sold to the British Museum to help pay off his debts. This scandal, exacerbated by the inept handling of the sculptures by their self-appointed guardians, remains unresolved to this day. In his fierce, eloquent account of a shameful piece of British imperial history, Christopher Hitchens makes the moral, artistic, legal and political case for re-unifying the Parthenon frieze in Athens. The opening of the New Acropolis Museum emphatically trumps the British Museum’s long-standing (if always questionable) objection that there is nowhere in Athens to house the Parthenon Marbles. With contributions by Nadine Gordimer and Professor Charalambos Bouras, The Parthenon Marbles will surely end all arguments about where these great treasures belong, and help bring a two-centuries-old disgrace to a just conclusion.

The Pediments of the Parthenon

Olga Palagia, 1993

An introduction and interim report on the statues of the pediments of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, carved in the 5th century B.C. Describes and illustrates the individual statues in each pediment, incorporating technical, stylistic, and iconographic remarks. Reviews the discussions of the problems by archaeologists since about 1953, and presents new proposals by Palagia (classical archaeology, U. of Athens) for restorations. Includes many original photographs and drawings. The first English-language treatment of the subject, and the first in any language since 1963.