Joan Breton Connelly. The Parthenon Enigma.

This book is a tacit proof that they do not give McArthur Fellowship for nothing. While it is not particularly useful if one wants to learn more about Ancient Greece, the author's hypothesis is so obvious and stunning that it bears ring of truth arguments notwithstanding. Her command of military realities (suggestion that cavalry was outdated by the time of Pericles when it was still widely employed in Franco-Prussian war) and questionable aesthetic judgment (Sir Alma Tadema a great painter) do not subtract from her monumental (no pun) achievement.

Namely, her hypothesis is that the friezes of Parthenon are the depiction of the founding myth of Athens--namely, the human sacrifice of daughters of Erechtheus (or Kekrops?) to Poseidon. While her insistence on strict delineation between contemporary procession of Panathenaic ceremonies and story of the original myth might be discarded by any Levi Strauss scholar, her insistence on centrality of Erechtheus daughters is commendable.