Rick Steves Athens & The Heart of Greece
Αθήνα
Athens Day 2
It's 8 am and we're out the door. It's a short walk to the Acropolis entrance, where we meet Faye, our guide for today. Faye is a character, very witty and very knowledgeable. We make our way into the site, stopping every few minutes for brief lessons in Greek history.
.jpg)
The Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the Acropolis, greeted us at the top of the marble staircase. The majesty of the gate announced to all the ancient Athenians who walked this very same path, of the grandeur that they were about to witness on the other side. Looking up, you can see the ceiling (partially restored) of the Propylaea central hall; it would have been painted and decorated with floral patterns and star patterns.
One of the first sights you see on your way up the hill to the Acropolis is the Odeon that Herodes Atticus built in 161 AD in memory of his wife. In ancient times, Odeons were built for musical contests; many times over the past two centuries it has been destroyed then rebuilt. It was refurbished most recently in the 1950s and is used today.
I always thought there was only one statue of Athena on the Acropolis, the one that was inside the Parthenon. Well, as it turns out, there were multiple statues! The first statue that the ancient Greeks would have encountered on the Acropolis was a 30-foot tall bronze statue of Athena Promachus, (meaning Athena who fights on the frontline) carrying a shield and a spear, showing her strength. Created by Pheidias in 456 BC, Athena Promachus would have been located just after passing through the Propylaea. The statue was so tall that ships at sea 30 miles away could see her helmet and the bronze tip of her spear .
The Parthenon, completed in 438 BC - what can you say about a temple that has stood for over 2500 years? Only taking 9 years to build, it measured 228 feet long and 101 feet wide, and was surrounded by 46 columns, 8 on each end and 17 on the sides.
Inside was the 2nd statue, Athena Parthenos (the virgin), 40 feet tall and made of gold and ivory, designed and built by the master sculptor Pheidias. She would have been holding a nearly 6 ft tall statue of Nike (Victory) in her right hand.
(The damage to the Parthenon that we see today was from the 1600's when a Venetian mortar round hit the gun powder that the Ottomans had stored inside the Parthenon)
The Erechteion is a beautiful, two story temple; inside would have been the 3rd statue of a life-sized Athena Polias, (protector of the city) made from wood of the olive tree.
The Erechteion was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon (one way to appease Poseidon for losing the contest to name the city of Athens - Athena gave the people of the city the life-giving olive tree, as opposed to Poseidon's salty offering of water to rule the seas.)
The Porch of the Maidens, also called the Caryatids, has 6 maidens, who are supporting the roof (if you look closely, you can see one leg of each maiden is the column).
The 4th statue of Athena would have been found in the small Temple of Athena Nike (victory), located just before the Propylaea. At this temple Athena was worshipped for bringing Victory to the Athenians in battle; this statue of Nike wasn't given wings - the Athenians wanted to be sure she didn't fly away.
(unfortunately my picture of the temple did not turn out well enough to post!)
The views of Athens from the Acropolis are outstanding; in this picture you can clearly see the Temple of Olympian Zeus (it still looks huge, even from here) and the Panathenaic Stadium.
It's all so very Greek! An inspiring story...
The Flag of Greece, with blue and white stripes and white cross, where blue symbolizes the sky and seas and white denotes the purity of the Greek struggle for independence. The cross represents the Christian religion. The nine stripes are said to represent the letters of the word "freedom" in Greek: (ελευθερία).
The flag that waves proudly on the Acropolis can be seen across the city of Athens. In May 1941, a evzone soldier who was on guard at the flagpole, was approached by a Nazi officer who demanded he take the flag down and replace it with a swastika flag. The evzone slowly brought the Greek flag down; rather than surrender it to the Nazi, he wrapped it around his body and jumped to his death.
A month later, two teenagers scaled the wall of the Acropolis in the middle of the night and took the swastika flag down, replacing it with the Greek flag. This was the beginning of the Greek resistance movement against the Nazi forces.
As we were leaving, this was the crowd of people entering the Acropolis! Come early!
After exploring the Acropolis, we toured the Acropolis Museum; this museum focuses on only one archaeological site - the Acropolis and the hills surrounding it. The original museum was on top of the Acropolis; however, it ran out of space with all the excavations and Athens needed a new building. Additionally, Athens needed to show that they had a museum capable of housing the Elgin Marbles, should they be returned from Britain.
As you enter the museum; you walk up a slight incline (called The Ramp), mimicking the slopes of the Acropolis. Below the glass floors you can see the excavations beneath the museum, showing an Athenian neighborhood.
Excavations under the entrance to the Acropolis Museum
The museum displays the Parthenon Frieze in a continuous loop, as it would have appeared on the Parthenon, bringing it down to eye level for better viewing. On the Parthenon itself, the frieze would have been located on the upper part of the inner temple. It was 525 feet long and depicts the Panathenaic parade, the annual celebration of Athena's birthday.
Everyone's favorite - the beautiful Porch Maidens of the Erechteion, the real ones, brought inside for protection from the elements. Each one unique, each one would have been painted in bright colors.
There is a space for the "missing" maiden - it is in the British Museum.
From the south side of the parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike - dated from 410 BC. This temple is located just before passing through the Propylaea; it shows Nike (Victory) adjusting (or removing) her sandal.
Such elegance and beauty!
Metope of the Parthenon. There were a total of 32 metopes on the south side of the Parthenon, depicting the mythical battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths, representing the struggle between barbarians and civilized men. The Centaur certainly looks like he's in control of the situation, but the Lapith has speared the Centaur in his left flank, winning the battle.
A display that caught my eye - Offerings to Asclepios. Parts of the body that were cured by the god Asklepios.
This brought a touch of reality to what life was like in the 4th century BC.; they had problems then just like we do today.
(Pictured are eyes, ear, breast and leg.)
After the Acropolis Museum tour, we had the rest of the day free. Time for a little snack before exploring more of Athens Luckily, there's a Gelato shop just down the street from the Acropolis Museum.
We finished our afternoon by visiting the Ancient Agora, the political, cultural and economic center of ancient Athens, from 600 BC to 300 AD. This seemed like a fitting ending to our time in Athens. Looking up at the Acropolis, we enjoyed the same view as the ancient Athenians. It was humbling to be in the same place where discussions took place so long ago on democracy, philosophy, science and mathematics, theatre, medicine; it is what shaped our world today.
The Stoa of Attalos - origially built in 150 BC., rebuilt in the 1950s. The stoa was a market and gathering place.
The Temple of Hephaistos, patron god of metal working, craftsmanship, and fire. The only surviving building from the ancient agora.
Church of the Holy Apostles, located next to the Stoa of Attalos, Built in the year 1000, it is one of the earliest byzantine churches in Athens.
Statue of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, 2nd century AD. We are running into him everywhere, it seems; we even walked down the street named for him - Adrianou - Hadrian's street.
On the breastplate of the statue you can see Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a she-wolf, and Athena standing on top. Is it showing Greece superiority to Rome by standing on the she-wolf, or is Rome supporting Greece?
The Odeon of Agrippa was added when the Romans started building in the agora. It was a two-story auditorium that could seat 1,000 people.
Time to sit and think about all we've see and learned here in Athens.