My inner Classicist (as I can now claim some authority in, with a B-fucking-A in Classical Studies) insists that I give you a small history lesson. I am particularly awed by the fact that I have actually come to the center of the ancient Mediterranean world.
We arrived in Athens late at night on Saturday, June 26th. Landing in the airport, and taking the Metro to Syntagma and switching lines to Sygrou-Fix, we immediately recognized the superiority of the Athenian transportation services when compared to Rome. Most of this is of course because of the 2004 Olympics, which forced Athens to vastly improve all aspects of the city and its infrastructure. The trains were modern and very clean, and signage was a vast improvement over Rome. The vast majority of people we have encountered up till now have also been much nicer, hospitable, and English-speaking.
We made our way a few blocks from Sygrou-Fix station to our accommodation, a hostel called Marble House, where the owner/receptionist was very helpful and let us use his free wifi. Dinner was at a small place around the corner where the waiter was also the cook, and what looked like his father also helped to serve us when he wasn't playing some kind of Flash-based SimCity/Civilizations game on his laptop at the bar.
After dinner, Natasha and I made our way to the Acropolis. This Acropolis belongs to Athens. There are many acropoleis like it, but this one is theirs. It was a 15-20 minute walk away from the hostel, through a typical Greek neighborhood past many shops and boutiques, bars, cafes, and a few supermarkets and convenience stores. We could tell when we were approaching the Acropolis because things started becoming touristy one block before the actual site (the entire sidewalk lined with cafes gave it away).
Seeing the Acropolis at night was a magnificent treat. An acropolis, translated into English as "citadel", is any fortress built upon a rise in any ancient city. There are many acropoleis in many ancient cities - but the Athenian acropolis is known without qualification as The Acropolis. Wikipedia can tell you more, but it gains this distinction as being one of the most ancient and important sites in the world. The Athenian Acropolis is built upon a small raised plateau (really a very large rock), with steep sides and fortified walls. During the night, the entire Acropolis is closed to the public, but it is lit up with giant floodlights. Here's a picture that does extremely poor justice to the wonder:
You can barely see the lit-up Parthenon in the background, on top of the plateau. Unfortunately, we do not possess the photography equipment to capture a good image of the scene at night. Once again... ... you shall have to see for yourself, one day.
The next morning, Ron, Natasha and I left very early to try and get to the Acropolis before the crowds. On the ascent to the top of the hill, we passed by the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a stone amphitheater built in 161 AD for his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. The amphitheater is still used today, as it was restored using pentelic marble in the 1950s. You can see a somewhat panoramic view of the Athenian sprawl in the background. As a Roman style theater, you can also see the remains of the high back wall, as is typical of Roman amphitheaters.
After this, we came at last to the entrance of the actual Acropolis (I use the term interchangeably to mean the general area in which the Acropolis is located, including its surrounding sights and venues, as well as the top of the actual rock plateau). On the right side of the entrance, which is not visible in this photograph, is the temple of Athena Nike. Athena, the patron goddess of Athens and the goddess of warfare, is sometimes depicted in ancient myth as accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike. Greek myth is an ever-changing, ever-evolving set of stories and notions, and is not, contrary to popular belief, a canonical set of ideas that are cast in stone. Greek Myth is in fact often very open to situational interpretation. What I mean to say is that "Athena Nike" could refer in fact to a view of Athena as a goddess of victory herself (nike, pronounced nee-keh, the ancient Greek word for victory, being an epithet of the goddess here), rather than a view of Athena as accompanied by the goddess Nike.
Many of the stones of the Acropolis are very ancient - at least 2400 years old, which is the time when Athens was in her golden age. This makes the Acropolis far older than anything the Roman empire served up by about 400-600 years, for most of the well-known monuments. The Athenian golden age is typically considered to be around 440-430 B.C.E., also known around this time as the Age of Pericles. Pericles was the leading Athenian statesman of that era, and although Athens was a democracy at this time, it was very common for a leading citizen to feature extremely prominently in all affairs of state. During these years, Athens became a vast naval power, projected through its vassal port of Piraeus (the city state of Athens itself was not by the coast, but Piraeus was only a few miles away by land). The Athenian Hegemony, as it is called, was known as the Delian League. Delos, a Cycladean island of vast religious importance, and extremely sacred to Apollo, was the chosen site for the treasury of the League. In return for tribute payments, Athens would provide naval and therefore military protection for its vassal states ('allies').
During this golden age, the leading intellectuals of the world came to Athens, and arts and philosophy flourished. The Peloponnesian War, a war between the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, and the Delian League, led by Athens, began in 431 B.C.E. Pericles died in 429 from the plague in Athens, and Athens lost the war in 419 B.C.E. Pericles in particular is credited with turning Athens into the intellectual and cultural center of the Greek world. Most of the monuments on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, were built from projects that he began.
The ancient Parthenon, a vast temple to Athena Parthenos ('virgin').
Perhaps the most symbolic image of Athenian glory in all of recorded
history. The details of its architecture are discussed later in this post.
Unfortunately, I am very poorly acquainted with the archaeological history of Athens, and I can merely relate the morsels that I know. In addition to the Parthenon, the other major attraction that still survives on the Acropolis is the Erectheion, so called because the temple was dedicated to Erectheus, the mythical first king of Athens. His name comes from the legend that he was raised up ('erected') from the earth, then nurtured and brought up by Athena. This monument is an especial favorite of mine, because of the Porch of the Caryatids, a side porch of the Erectheion that is held up by six pillars shaped like women.
The gorgeous beauties of the Caryatid Porch.
After the top of the Acropolis we began our descent, but not without stopping at the ancient Athenian theater. This is where it happened - the festival of Dionysus, the Dionysia, where playwrights the likes of Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes and Sophocles competed for the laurel crown. This is where Oidipous Tyrannos won first place for tragedy, and Clouds won first place for comedy. So many titans of the literary tradition were right here under our feet - the emotion is dizzying. I personally could not stop marveling at how it felt to tread upon the ancient majesty of the Classical World. You could say that more than half of my fascination with Classics lies at this very place.
The Theater of Dionysus, where the Dionysia, the annual
festival to Dionysus, held its theatrical contests in tragedy and comedy.
I must return to the topic of the Acropolis. The Acropolis was the central site of the annual Panathenaea, the most important festival in Athens and one of the greatest festivals in the ancient Greek world. Beginning from one of the city gates, everyone in the city except slaves would participate in a procession to the Acropolis, passing through the Agora (the marketplace, where Socrates discussed philosophy with the likes of Alcibiades and Gorgias), then stopping for a sacrifice on the Areopagus (the ancient site of the democratic Athenian Assembly, where all male citizens would vote on matters of state), another sacrifice at the Temple of Athena Nike, and then finally a sacrifice in front of the Erectheion at the alter of Athena. The festival was meant primarily to celebrate the birthday of Athena Polias, "Athena of the city".
After visiting the Acropolis, Tash and Ron and I walked around the main tourist and shopping area of the city known as the Plaka, several blocks north of the Acropolis. Narrow streets were lined with t-shirt and souvenir shops, and while I greatly desired to acquire a small statue of Athena, none were found that were of good quality. There was also an art gallery that featured remade replicas of actual ancient artifacts now shown in museums - such as a replica of Phillip of Macedon's shield, complete with a battered, golden, 16-point Argead star (the symbol of the Macedonian Kingdom under Phillip and Alexander the Great).
After a brief lunch, we proceeded to the Acropolis Museum, situated right under the Acropolis. This was one of the best museums we had ever been in - everything was very modern, it was very spacious, and extremely well lit (it was also air conditioned - a major plus).
The Acropolis Museum, which we do not have pictures of, contained a ton of relics and statues recovered from the Acropolis. Most statues were of Kore (Persephone) and Athena, usually with some kind of epithet. Most of the statues were donated by citizens of the city, also known as dedications, meant for supplicating the deity when the citizen requested some kind of divine favor or aid.
The highlight of the Acropolis Museum was the fourth floor - the carvings recovered from the Parthenon itself. The entire floor was arranged to be a scale representation of the Parthenon - each pillar on the floor corresponded to one of the ancient columns that held up the temple. Around the four sides of the Parthenon floor, above the columns, were the carvings that each depicted a different struggle. On one side was depicted the Titanomachy - in ancient Greek myth, the fight for dominance between Zeus and his Olympian gods and the Titans who ruled the earth before them. On another was depicted the Gigantomachy - the struggle between the Olympian gods and the giants, right after the Titanomachy. On yet another side, an amazonomachy - a fight between Greek warriors and Amazons. The Greeks were intensely fascinated with Amazons - the mythical warrior women who were an even match, or greater, for the elite Greek hoplites. In a society that severely repressed women, you can perhaps grasp the immense intrigue with which the Greeks regarded the legend of the Amazons. The final side of the Parthenon depicts the Centauromachy - the legendary fight between the centaurs, who were unused to wine and therefore became wild, and the Lapiths, an ancient tribe of Greeks, at the wedding feast of Pirithous.
Perhaps even more spectacular were the carvings above the short sides of the Parthenon - at the place where the roof sloped upwards, known as the pediments (east and west). On the top pediment, which is a recreation of the original carvings (now in horrendously non-existent shape), is depicted the contest between Athena and Poseidon to gain the adoration of the Athenian people as their city's deity. As legend has it, Poseidon gave the Athenians a spring, but it was a saltwater spring, and Athena gave them the olive tree. Hence, the Athenians chose Athena as their patron deity, and the rest, as they say, is history. The lower pediment in the above-image shows the Olympic pantheon, with Zeus seated on his throne. Various familiar deities are present - Hermes with his caduceus (the funny spiral shaped thingy that is also a familiar sign on ambulance/medical symbols), Apollo with his lyre, Aphrodite with her son, Eros, Iris, the winged messenger, and I forget who else (hard to tell in the small photograph).
I wish you could have been there to see the scale model replicas of the pediments - they are truly incredible works of artistic sculpture. If you know how to acquire these replicas, I am all ears!!!
Athens in general is not as shitty of a city as you might imagine. It's several orders better than Rome, in that it's less crowded, less stressful, less likely to kill you in a traffic incident, and best of all, the people are SO MUCH NICER.
After visiting the Acropolis, Tash and Ron and I walked around the main tourist and shopping area of the city known as the Plaka, several blocks north of the Acropolis. Narrow streets were lined with t-shirt and souvenir shops, and while I greatly desired to acquire a small statue of Athena, none were found that were of good quality. There was also an art gallery that featured remade replicas of actual ancient artifacts now shown in museums - such as a replica of Phillip of Macedon's shield, complete with a battered, golden, 16-point Argead star (the symbol of the Macedonian Kingdom under Phillip and Alexander the Great).
After a brief lunch, we proceeded to the Acropolis Museum, situated right under the Acropolis. This was one of the best museums we had ever been in - everything was very modern, it was very spacious, and extremely well lit (it was also air conditioned - a major plus).
The Acropolis Museum, which we do not have pictures of, contained a ton of relics and statues recovered from the Acropolis. Most statues were of Kore (Persephone) and Athena, usually with some kind of epithet. Most of the statues were donated by citizens of the city, also known as dedications, meant for supplicating the deity when the citizen requested some kind of divine favor or aid.
The highlight of the Acropolis Museum was the fourth floor - the carvings recovered from the Parthenon itself. The entire floor was arranged to be a scale representation of the Parthenon - each pillar on the floor corresponded to one of the ancient columns that held up the temple. Around the four sides of the Parthenon floor, above the columns, were the carvings that each depicted a different struggle. On one side was depicted the Titanomachy - in ancient Greek myth, the fight for dominance between Zeus and his Olympian gods and the Titans who ruled the earth before them. On another was depicted the Gigantomachy - the struggle between the Olympian gods and the giants, right after the Titanomachy. On yet another side, an amazonomachy - a fight between Greek warriors and Amazons. The Greeks were intensely fascinated with Amazons - the mythical warrior women who were an even match, or greater, for the elite Greek hoplites. In a society that severely repressed women, you can perhaps grasp the immense intrigue with which the Greeks regarded the legend of the Amazons. The final side of the Parthenon depicts the Centauromachy - the legendary fight between the centaurs, who were unused to wine and therefore became wild, and the Lapiths, an ancient tribe of Greeks, at the wedding feast of Pirithous.
Perhaps even more spectacular were the carvings above the short sides of the Parthenon - at the place where the roof sloped upwards, known as the pediments (east and west). On the top pediment, which is a recreation of the original carvings (now in horrendously non-existent shape), is depicted the contest between Athena and Poseidon to gain the adoration of the Athenian people as their city's deity. As legend has it, Poseidon gave the Athenians a spring, but it was a saltwater spring, and Athena gave them the olive tree. Hence, the Athenians chose Athena as their patron deity, and the rest, as they say, is history. The lower pediment in the above-image shows the Olympic pantheon, with Zeus seated on his throne. Various familiar deities are present - Hermes with his caduceus (the funny spiral shaped thingy that is also a familiar sign on ambulance/medical symbols), Apollo with his lyre, Aphrodite with her son, Eros, Iris, the winged messenger, and I forget who else (hard to tell in the small photograph).
I wish you could have been there to see the scale model replicas of the pediments - they are truly incredible works of artistic sculpture. If you know how to acquire these replicas, I am all ears!!!
Athens in general is not as shitty of a city as you might imagine. It's several orders better than Rome, in that it's less crowded, less stressful, less likely to kill you in a traffic incident, and best of all, the people are SO MUCH NICER.
Great insight Zhi! I learned a lot!
ReplyDeleteDoctor Hurwich, you just earned a prize!
ReplyDeleteZhi, don't stop writing! That's an order! I love this blog.
ReplyDelete