Description
Book SynopsisIn this book, Clemente Marconi provides a new interpretation for the use of figural decoration in Greek temples of the archaic period, through a study of the archaic metopes of Selinus. Marconi examines the function of figures on temples within the cultural and social context of the communities for which these images were created.
Trade ReviewReview of the hardback: '[Marconi's] control of ancient literary sources, historiographies, relevant mythologies, the archaeological and archival record, the contents of dusty storerooms, and iconographic and stylistic comparanda is remarkable. The reintegration of the Selinus metopes into the fabric of the architecture, the broader contextualizations of temple into sanctuary and polis, and of the figural décor into concepts of civic identity and of the individual's place in society, open whole new avenues of research.' Journal of Hellenic Studies
Table of Contents1. Figure and temple in the Greek world until the beginning of the late archaic period (ca. 700–530 BC); 2. Monumental architecture and colonization in archaic Sicily; 3. Selinus: history and urban development of an archaic Greek colony; 4. The small metopes; 5. Temple C and its metopes; 6. Gods, heroes, and monsters: the cultural identity of a Greek colony in the West.
