Talk: "Seeing the Parthenon Frieze through Greek Eyes"

• Event Date: Friday, April 8, 2016
• Time: 4:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk

Talk by Jenifer Neils, Case Western Reserve University

The Parthenon is arguably the least enigmatic building of ancient Greece. Ancient accounts preserve a vast amount of information about the classical temple of Athena Polias: its date, architect, cost, cult statue, and contents. Current research and the ongoing reconstruction project are continually revealing new insights into the building’s design, producing innovative readings of its vast sculptural program and raising intriguing questions about its meaning in classical Athens. With this lecture, Jenifer Neils, Case Western Reserve University, reviews some of these more recent contributions to the study of the Parthenon and explores new avenues of inquiry, proving definitively that the famous sculpted frieze represents the procession of the Panathenaic festival of Athena rather than a scene of human sacrifice.

Organized by the Spurlock Museum and the Department of the Classics.