The Parthenon Enigma Quotes

“in the Greek view, mythos (a “saying” or “story” without rational claim to truth) and history (the empirical search for truth about the past)7 were often indistinguishable;”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“This marks an important shift in the function of the north slope, no longer just a source of secure and plentiful water but a place of shrines, worship, and visitation. In a very real sense, this evolution into a place of commemoration and devotion marks the expansion of the sacred space of the Acropolis down its slopes and the opening up of the Sacred Rock to the larger community. This”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“It is out of Attica—the greater territory surrounding Athens—that the forces of nature and divinity, of human drama and history, issued.”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“This is true of the birth of democracy, too. Indeed, the novelty of democratic rule would not have been conceivable without the intense awareness of the common bond forged by shared genealogy as fostered by religion.”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“Sometimes they uttered as if for the gods’ understanding, sometimes again the sound of a bellowing bull whose might is uncontainable and whose voice is proud, sometimes again of a lion who knows no restraint, sometimes again of a pack of hounds, astonishing to hear; sometimes again he hissed; and the long mountains echoed below.”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“Kekrops testified that he had witnessed Athena plant the olive tree first, and so the twelve gods whom Zeus appointed as arbiters judged Athena the winner. Infuriated at the outcome, Poseidon let loose a torrent, submerging Attica beneath the rising flood. Poseidon’s retributive flooding of the Thriasion Plain, the great flatland between Athens and Eleusis, is not simply yet another inundation. We must view it alongside the age-old flood myths of the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hebrew traditions.”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma

“Erechtheus’s birth myth is singular in every respect. According to Apollodoros, conception occurred when the god Hephaistos caught sight of the maiden Athena.138 He chased her, even as the virgin goddess resisted his advances. Much excited, Hephaistos “spilled his seed” upon her leg. Disgusted, Athena wiped the semen from her thigh with a piece of wool and threw it upon the ground. There, the seed of Hephaistos impregnated Mother Earth. From this improbable union, the hero known as Erechtheus was conceived. All Athenians were the progeny of this king, and while not sprung directly from the soil, they understood themselves to be descended from Mother Earth herself.139 No birth story could give the Athenians a stronger claim upon the land.”
― Joan Breton Connelly, The Parthenon Enigma