The Grand Tour
Athens
"Before us in the flooding moonlight rose the
noblest ruins we had ever looked upon.... Overhead the stately columns, majestic
still in their ruin--under foot the dreaming city--in the distance the silver
sea--not on the broad earth is there another picture half so
beautiful....History says that the temples of the Acropolis were filled with the
noblest works of Praxiteles and Phidias and of many a great master in sculpture
besides...." Mark Twain, 1867, The Innocents Abroad.
The earliest evidence of settlement dates from 2800 BC.
By the 8th B.C. century Athens had became a great sea power, trading with Sicily,
Egypt, and cities around the Black Sea. The 6th Century B.C. marked Greece's
"Golden Age" when the invading Persians were defeated and democracy
was formalized in Athens.
By 146 BC Greece was occupied by the Romans marking the
beginning of a long succession of control by occupying countries, including the
French, the Catalans, the Neapolitans, and in 1436 the Turks, who held
Greece for nearly 400 years before surrendering to King Otho in 1833.
Only a few decades before Twain's visit, Athens had
been named the capital of Greece by the new King of Greece, Otho. In the 1860's
Athens was still a small town of probably no more than 10,000 citizens. Today,
there are about 10 million people living in all of Greece and about half of
them, five million, live in Athens, making the city one of the most densely
populated cities on earth. Whatever else has changed in the last century, Greece
remains very much connected to the sea. While in terms of land mass Greece is a
relatively small country, because it is made up of hundreds of islands, Greece
actually has more coastline than all of the continental United States combined.
For most visitors, everything important about Athens is
confined to a handful of historic sites which have become surrounded by the
encroaching urban development. Most of Athens historic buildings were destroyed
by the religious and political leaders of the occupying countries. A few escaped
primarily because the were used for religious purposes, first by the Christians
and later by the Moslems.
The Acropolis,
the hill where the greatest concentration of historic buildings are located,
most notably The Parthenon --Temple of
Athena Parthenos (maiden), is a World
Heritage Site visited each year by
millions
of people around the world. Undoubtedly, more people have visited the
Acropolis during the last few decades than ever visited in during all the prior 23
centuries combined. In fact, ancient Athenians visited the Acropolis only once a
year, as part of their religious rites. The present Parthenon
dates from 438 BC, an earlier temple built in 490BC was
destroyed by the
Persians. The Temple once housed a 39 foot tall statue of Athena made of gold
and ivory. The gold was removed in 296 BC by the tyrant Lachares to pay his
army, and the rest of the statue was destroyed sometime later. The Erechtheion,
the temple to the patron god of the city also survives on the Acropolis. This
smaller temple is best
known for the six caryatids on its south porch. The
original caryatids were removed in the 1970s and placed in the Acropolis Museum.
Indeed, everywhere there is evidence of restoration work on the buildings on the
Acropolis.
From atop the Acropolis one can look down into The
Odeon of Herod Atticus, an amphitheater of the 2nd Century A.D. The
theater is still in use today.
From the Acropolis one has a beautiful overview of the
Agora, Athens'
original market place. This is where Socrates taught his
students, and where Solon founded Athenian democracy in 6th century B.C.. The
Agora was also the site of several sacred structures, including the Eleusinion
and the Temple of Hephaistos, which dates back to
444 BC and remains the
best preserved ancient temple anywhere in Greece. The
Temple of Hephaistos is the traditional location of Theseus' (who slayed the
Minotaur) tomb. Also not far from the Acropolis are the ruins of the Temple of
Zeus. In every case, the ancient sites of Athens are now closely ringed in by a
seemingly endless number of four to eight story apartment buildings, resulting
in a strange and unsettling contrast.
Once Greece had again gained its independence and moved
its capitol to Athens in the 19th Century, many buildings where constructed in
Athens in the neoclassic style. Unfortunately, in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the
same strange view of architecture prevailed in Athens that existed in virtually
all the other major cities of the world. During this time most of the neoclassic
buildings in Athens were razed to make room for apartment buildings. In fact,
probably the best description of modern Athens is a sprawling cities of
apartment buildings, all eight stories or less (Athenians remain very concerned
about earthquakes). Of the few remaining neoclassic buildings, The Academy
of Athens and the
Panathenaic Stadium are the most impressive. The
70,000 seat Stadium was built to host the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896.
Interestingly, the 1896 Olympic Games were the first in history to include the
Marathon and the only Olympic Games in which a Greek has won the Marathon.
For more information, please visit the following
websites.
e-mail the
Flagler Museum
of people around the world. Undoubtedly, more people have visited the
Acropolis during the last few decades than ever visited in during all the prior 23
centuries combined. In fact, ancient Athenians visited the Acropolis only once a
year, as part of their religious rites. The present Parthenon
dates from 438 BC, an earlier temple built in 490BC was
destroyed by the
Persians. The Temple once housed a 39 foot tall statue of Athena made of gold
and ivory. The gold was removed in 296 BC by the tyrant Lachares to pay his
army, and the rest of the statue was destroyed sometime later. The Erechtheion,
the temple to the patron god of the city also survives on the Acropolis. This
smaller temple is best
known for the six caryatids on its south porch. The
original caryatids were removed in the 1970s and placed in the Acropolis Museum.
Indeed, everywhere there is evidence of restoration work on the buildings on the
Acropolis.
