Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis focuses on the architectural complex generally considered to be one of the outstanding achievements of Western civilization. Though the buildings and sculpture of the Acropolis have been scrutinized by scholars for more than a century, Robin Rhodes's sensitive analysis is unique in its consideration of the ensemble as a whole and its explanation of how the monuments communicate meaningfully with one another to form an iconographic narrative.

His study is also the first to examine the architectural sculpture of the Acropolis within the context of its buildings; the sculpture and the more abstract features of the architecture were clearly conceived together, and Rhodes relates them both to the contexts and issues of Greek architecture and aesthetics. Among the themes treated in this landmark study are the relationship between landscape and religious architecture; the humanization of temple divinities; the architectural expression of religious tradition and even specific history; architectural procession and hieratic direction; symbolism and allusion through architectural order; religious revival and archaism; and the breaking of architectural and religious canon.

Taken together, they constitute the specific architectural narrative of the Periclean Acropolis.