In “Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis”, Rachel Kousser analyzes the Athenian acropolis under the lenses of iconoclasm and Orientalism. The author finds common ground with historical literature in their acknowledgement of the integral role the late 400s Persian Wars played in shaping art throughout Classical Athens, namely the destruction of the Acropolis, and the subsequent building program of the Parthenon on and from the ruins. Kousser notes the recent interest of scholars of Classical Greece in discourses of Orientalism, and seeks to connect conversations of Orientalism and iconoclasm. “Seen from an Orientalist perspective”, argues Kouser, “the Parthenon therefore appears less as a unique, unprecedented monument than as part of a well established tradition, in which works of art helped to preserve and transform the memory of the Persian sack for an Athenian audience.” (263) The author stresses the Greek tendency to “incorporate within the new building program a trace of the past, by this means to make the destroyed temple live again” (275) and how they use this approach in the Parthenon to mythologize, memorialize and retell the history of the war. Kousser also underscores the importance of their exposition, noting how it offers a perspective on the narrative that has been previously absent from the broader literature in the field and provides a more balanced and nuanced perspective for the analysis of Greek art which integrates the “functional qualities” (277) of it.
