Classical Polylogarithms

Abstract

This paper is an introduction to classical polylogarithms and is an expanded version of a talk given by the author at the Motives conference. Topics covered include, monodromy; the polylogarithm local systems; Bloch's constructions of regulators using the dilogarithm; polylog locals systems as variations of mixed Hodge structre; the polylogarithm quotient of the fundamental group of C - {0,}. It is intended as background for understanding recent work of Beilinson, Deligne, and Goncharov.