A GREEK TEMPLE

In the ``Inside Story'' series, a detailed look at the Parthenon—its historical setting (built not only to honor Athena but to provide work for former soldiers after the Persian Wars); its design, construction, and architectural details; its uses and subsequent history. Combining a generally explanatory text with detailed illustrations of different sizes, each with a caption clarifying and extending the text, the book conveys an admirable amount of in-depth information about this vast, wonderfully complex structure. The author's organization is more topical than sequential, with the result that it's often necessary for the reader to piece facts together—e.g., by searching captions for a definition of a word in the text. The realistic, finely detailed illustrations do an excellent job of showing how the different elements were made and assembled; but the noble effect of the whole, and especially of the heroic statuary, is less effectively conveyed—in part because of the delicacy of Bergin's style. Still, all in all, unusually thorough and authoritative. Glossary; index. (Nonfiction. 9-13)