In 1996 Joan Connelly published an article in the American Journal of Archaeology in which she argued that the frieze of the Parthenon represented the sacrifice of the daughters of Erechtheus and Praxithea (the king and queen of primeval Athens) and its ritual consequences.1 This sacrifice, Connelly argues, became a symbol of the kind of unwavering devotion to the welfare of the city that later political leaders, like Pericles, wanted to instill into the Athenian citizenry. Hence, it was not simply an appropriate subject for the Parthenon frieze; it was an essential one. Although this reading of the frieze has its adherents among Classical scholars, doubters seem to outnumber the believers, and in the present book Connelly’s intention is clearly to reopen the battle by expanding and rearguing her ideas not only about the frieze but about all of the Parthenon sculptures. She succeeds in this goal remarkably well. The Parthenon Enigmais a gracefully written, informative, and, for the most part, plausible book. Although Connelly would obviously like to win over more of her fellow classicists to her point of view, the book is clearly aimed at persuading a wider, non-specialist audience to see things as she does. With this goal in mind, she takes particular pains throughout the book to evoke a vivid historical context for her readers, and compensates for occasional heavy doses of archaeological and historical detail with wryly amusing historical digressions. The result is an entertaining read, and anyone who is interested in