Image and Idea in Fifth Century Greece: Art and Literature After the Persian Wars

The Wayneflete Lectures, given under the auspices of Magdalen College, Oxford, delivered in 1983 by Professor Francis, and published here under the title Image and Idea in Fifth Century Greece , are important because they challenge the way that the ancient world and its artistic and literary productions are often viewed. Francis believed that the ancient world was a unity in which issues of the day were reflected in the language of pictorial and sculptural representation and in the works of literature. If Professor Francis's case is valid, then the pan-Hellenic construction of temples, erection of dedicatory statues, and the general joie de vivre to be found in the artefacts of the `late archaic period' can be seen as the physical manifestations of Greek victory over the Persians in 480 and 479.