The Parthenon frieze has stimulated more discussion and controversy than any other monument of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Resistant to verifiable interpretation, the frieze continues to generate scholarly effort and stir interest among the general populace, for not only its aesthetic appeal but also its powerful potential as a cultural and political icon. Anyone who writes about the Parthenon frieze invites criticism and controversy, so it is to Jenifer Neils’s great credit that she takes on this behemoth. In a lively written and highly intelligent book, Neils lays out all that is known or hypothesized about the Ionic frieze of the Parthenon and offers her own interpretation of this extraordinary relief. This is not a scientific study, with the measurement of every block or the analyses of its marble. Rather it is an interpretive one, based on careful observation and a thoughtful consideration of the place of the frieze in contemporary religious ritual and its social context. Unlike previous monographs on the frieze, this study endeavors to be comprehensive in its approach. An introduction provides a brief history of the frieze’s reception and study from 1436 onward (no ancient author mentions the frieze) and the evidence for the frieze—drawings, plaster...