cover image Athens

Athens

James H.S. McGregor. Harvard Univ./Belknap, $29.95 (244p) ISBN 978-0-674-04772-3

McGregor (Paris from the Ground Up), emeritus professor of comparative literature at the University of Georgia, takes readers through centuries of Greek history, art, and architecture to provide both “a coherent narrative” and a travel guide. He focuses primarily on the Athenian Acropolis, “home to the city gods,” and the Agora, locus of political and public life. McGregor describes the Parthenon as it once was, serving as both place of worship and treasury, with its ornate statue of Athena, carved metopes, and frieze depicting the Panathenaian processional. On the Agora, McGregor explains architectural features, living structures, and its restoration at the height of Hellenism. Peripherally, readers visit the Theater of Dionysos, birthplace of Greek theater, and the Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896. Medieval Athens found its monuments appropriated into Christian places of worship and the construction of the grand monastery of Daphni. McGregor traces Greek political and military history from the fourth century B.C.E. conflict with Macedonian forces to Roman occupation and 19th-century war for independence. In the 20th century, liberals and monarchists clashed for years of civil war, while also disastrously invading Turkey. Despite a whiff of tedium, McGregor condenses a massive history into a relatively slim volume and provides rich descriptions of architectural details. Maps & photos. (Apr.)