Does the Parthenon Frieze depict human sacrifice?

[SigniferOne]

http://girardianlectionary.net/res/l..._parthenon.htm

"Now the discovery of fragments of a lost play by Euripides, found on papyrus in the wrappings of an Egyptian mummy, and the diligent research of an American archeologist have produced a much different interpretation [than the birthday one]. The scenes of the frieze do not depict a fifth-century procession, according to the new thesis, but instead evoke the Athenian founding myth of a king's precious sacrifice to save his city from defeat. Such an interpretation may be more satisfying to scholars and more revealing of early Greek culture and mythology -- but it may also become controversial and eventually disillusioning."

Does anyone have more information? And what particular slabs corroborate the Euripides fragments? Or does this more refer to the Eleusinian reliefs, rather than the Parthenon frieze?

[DAVIDE]

Probably it was just the Panathenanea festivity with the ceremony of hecatombe in which an hecaton aka 100 cattles were sacrificed in the altar

[Ima Farmathar]

what is wrong with human sacrifice? I personally prefer a god that demands sacrifices form its believers.

[Akrotatos]

Does anyone have more information? And what particular slabs corroborate the Euripides fragments? Or does this more refer to the Eleusinian reliefs, rather than the Parthenon frieze?

Codrus (Greek: Κόδρος) was the last of the semi-mythical Kings of Athens (r. ca 1089-1068 BC). He was an ancient exemplar of patriotism and self-sacrifice. He was succeeded by his son Medon, who ruled not as king but as the first Archon of Athens.
The earliest version of the story of Codrus comes from the 4th oration Against Leocrates by Lycurgus.[1] During the time of the Dorian Invasion of Peloponnesus (c. 1068 BC), the Dorians under Aletes had consulted the Delphic Oracle, who prophesied that their invasion would succeed as long as the king was not harmed. The news of this prophecy, that only the death of an Athenian king would ensure the safety of Athens, quickly found its way to the ears of Codrus. In devotion to his people, Codrus disguised himself as a peasant and made it to the vicinity of the Dorian encampment across the river, where he provoked a group of Dorian soldiers. He was put to death in the quarrel, and the Dorians, realizing Codrus had been slain, decided to retreat in fear of their prophesied defeat.
In the aftermath of these events, no one thought himself worthy to succeed Codrus, the title of king was abolished, and that of archon substituted for it. The first such archon was Codrus' son, Medon.


from wiki

[conon394]

Here is the Link for the paper by Connelly that makes this argument-

http://www.jstor.org/pss/506297

The Play fragments are apparently from 'Erechtheu'

Connelly's argument certainly does not seem to have been as convincing as suggested in your link Sig.

Here is a recent survey of the various interpretations that are current or recent (p238-239) [and of course another view as well] -

http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eser..._Parthenon.pdf

[SigniferOne]

Very interesting, thanks Conon. It would be quite interesting if the sacrifice interpretation were true.

[conon394]

It would be quite interesting if the sacrifice interpretation were true.

I doubt it - or rather I agree with the last source I posted most over elegant interpretations of the thing likely miss the forest for the trees. The thing is Sig when is the last time you thought about the iconography of your wardrobe with the kind of weird perspective that many historians want to bring to interpreting ancient art - or any other thing you painted you picked up; the shows you watch the cups you buy etc. Stop for a minute at think - historians often work themselves up into a hissy fit of verbage of about how everything anyone in X ancient culture did, bought liked was some kind of statement. I mean I have have some faded Harry Potter mugs. I like them well because I like Harry potter, but I frankly I like them far more because they are big and hold a good cup of coffee in the morning and don't get hand burning hot when put in the microwave and I got the set on clearance sale - and that was the key factor above all else - I needed some mugs and Harry Potter beat some ugly Christmas ones... But in Historian speak digging up my house I would be some kind of data point arguing that many middle Americans dreamed of a British boarding school education...

[SigniferOne]

I doubt it - or rather I agree with the last source I posted most over elegant interpretations of the thing likely miss the forest for the trees. The thing is Sig when is the last time you thought about the iconography of your wardrobe with the kind of weird perspective that many historians want to bring to interpreting ancient art - or any other thing you painted you picked up; the shows you watch the cups you buy etc. Stop for a minute at think - historians often work themselves up into a hissy fit of verbage of about how everything anyone in X ancient culture did, bought liked was some kind of statement. I mean I have have some faded Harry Potter mugs. I like them well because I like Harry potter, but I frankly I like them far more because they are big and hold a good cup of coffee in the morning and don't get hand burning hot when put in the microwave and I got the set on clearance sale - and that was the key factor above all else - I needed some mugs and Harry Potter beat some ugly Christmas ones... But in Historian speak digging up my house I would be some kind of data point arguing that many middle Americans dreamed of a British boarding school education...

Yes but also be careful not to read your own values into the Greeks. They had no problem painting an high-quality painting of a man getting it on with an boy on some vases. I mean those vases are a work of art, a real progenitor to all of Western painting, and this is the kind of stuff that you can find on some of them, along with scenes of Olympic exercises, and normal man-woman getting-on. If they didn't see anything wrong with putting it there, I don't see why they couldn't put that on a frieze; e.g. let's say Ganymede getting it on with Zeus, a suitably heavenly theme. And if they could depict that, I don't see why they couldn't depict any number of the human sacrifices in Greek legend.

[SigniferOne]

Bump, anyone got some further news about this?

[neoptolemos]

The only news i ve recently read is that photographies of the Acropolis wall have uncovered some fragments of the Frieze that they were thought lost since Morozinis's attack.I ll search to find an english article about it

[Odovacar]

Stop for a minute at think - historians often work themselves up into a hissy fit of verbage of about how everything anyone in X ancient culture did, bought liked was some kind of statement. I mean I have have some faded Harry Potter mugs. I like them well because I like Harry potter, but I frankly I like them far more because they are big and hold a good cup of coffee in the morning and don't get hand burning hot when put in the microwave and I got the set on clearance sale - and that was the key factor above all else - I needed some mugs and Harry Potter beat some ugly Christmas ones... But in Historian speak digging up my house I would be some kind of data point arguing that many middle Americans dreamed of a British boarding school education...

That is a valid observation, but I'd like to point out, that preindustrial civilizations did not have the same stance to patterns, symbols like ours. In Middle Ages symbols had obvious meanings attached to them, that's why medieval political life badly needed rituals, which are unnecessary today.
People adopted some fashion always, but barbarian tribes for example had their own symbols in a given time. All archeologist dealing with nomads can support this statement.

In our world we have much artifacts around us, symbols, colours, images surround us, and we can gather mugs with japanese, american or even russian fiction. You can have a samurai sword in your house and at the same time a traditional folk-art bulgarian table-cover....