Today's lesson focused on the Parthenon. Mercer reviewed material that detailed a magnificent rebuilding program directed by the Athenian statesman Pericles, following the sack of the Acropolis during the Greco-Persian Wars (492–449 BCE). The project was to include, among other things, the Propylaea, the gateway to the sacred precinct; the Erechtheum, a shrine to the agricultural deities, especially Erichthonius; and the Temple of Athena Nike, an architectural symbol of the harmony with which the Dorian and Ionian peoples lived under the government of Athens. Mercer had trouble focusing on the material.