The Parthenon and Classicism

In working on my book, I've been thinking a bit about what it means for art to be "classical." It's not a concept I'm very fond of in application to music because people think it means purely formal, the opposite of self-expression. It's a very problematic term. But if you think of classicism as it pertains to ancient Greece, you can see why people started using the word for music like Haydn and Mozart. The Parthenon in paricular is a good example since it has the same clarity, neatness of proportion, eternal and iconic nature, and clean rational structure as the compositions of these Enlightenment era composers. Here is an amazing video produced by director Costa-Gavras for the Acropollis Museum. I find it interesting not only because of the beutiful re-creation of the Parthenon, but also for the dramatization of the history of the structure in future eras--a history of horrible abuse by barbarians, christians, and muslims.