Constructed between 447 and 432 BCE, the Parthenon has come to epitomize architectural beauty and proportion as well as the ancient Athenian political and social ideals that underpin Western civilization. Connelly's radical new interpretation of the temple challenges our traditional understanding of the events depicted on its frieze; she uses the evidence of a fragmentary play by Euripides to argue that the temples enigmatic imagery represents not a contemporary civic celebration but a human sacrifice in the mythic past. Off-mint.