The Roundup: Athens
Hi all - I'm so psyched to be writing my first blog post from Greece! My mom and I touched down in Athens yesterday morning at around 11:00 AM and we've been traipsing around the city ever since. We had an electric bike tour our first night in the city and got a quick overview of all the major sites. This morning we had a half-day tour, which provided a lot more comprehensive review of each site! Here are some of my favorites :)
Hill of Pnyx The Pnyx functioned as a place of assembly for Athenian citizens around 500 BC and consisted of a large amphitheater with a central platform for an orator. The assembly met ten times a year and is thought to have housed the first democratic public forums at the end of the Archaic period. Our guide said that he loved this site because any person, no matter how rich or how poor, was given access to an audience of aristocrats and laypeople.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus This open-air theater structure was originally built by the Athenian benefactor Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. The theater once had a wooden roof, but is now left as an amphitheater for cultural events and concerts from May to September. While looking straight at the Odeon from the Acropolis, we got a beautiful view of Fiopappos Hill and the Monument of Filopappos crowning the summit. The structure was built to honor Julius Filopappos, a Roman who was educated in Athens and liked it so much that he became a prominent benefactor of the city!
Syntagma Square This is the area that our hotel is closest to, so we've spent a far amount of time just meandering through this square, biding our time before our next activity. We were able to see the changing of the royal guard late Sunday afternoon when we arrived. Apparently the uniforms the guards wear on Sunday are the most elegant, so we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time! The guards wear traditional fustanella on Sundays - a Balkan skirt-like garment. To represent the 400 year rule by the Ottomans, Greek fustanella have 400 pleats, their berets have 400 tassels, and the small poms on each shoe have 400 strands of fabric. The square also hosts the Hellenic Parliament Building, which was formerly the Royal Palace for King Otto I (of Roman descent). The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier also faces the square and is indicated by an engraving on the panel in front of the stairs leading up to the Parliament.
Panathenaic Stadium This stadium was built for the 1896 Olympic games and was to replace the site of an ancient stadium. The stadium is made entirely from Athenian marble (from Mt Penteli) and houses up to 70,000 spectators for local and regional events to this very day! About three weeks ago, the Olympic torch was lit at Olympia and carried through this stadium to be passed along to Brazil.
Temple of the Olympian Zeus Standing next to this monument really made me appreciate how much time and manpower went into building a temple. Originally constructed with 104 columns, only 15 remain (and 2 have fallen). Constructed during the Medieval period with (again) marble, the structure used to have a roof! The fallen columns show us that no plaster was used to connected the different segments comprising the columns. Each disk had a small hole in the center and a rod of marble ran through each disk to keep the structure erect. That being said, our tour guide said that the frequent earthquakes in Greece pose a real problem to their free-standing monuments!
Acropolis I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the Acropolis (and Agora) are obviously must-sees. The Acropolis was used as a fortress during the Prehistoric period. The royal palace sat atop the hill and was completely walled-off. After the royal palace was moved, the Acropolis became predominantly a place of worship. Persians destroyed the first temples of the Acropolis. The Athenians prevailed at the Battle of Marathon and now we have a 26.2 mi race that remains a testament to this battle. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans occupied Athens, but adopted the Greek gods. As such, the new temples were preserved. When the Turks ruled Athens, the Acropolis was once again turned into a fortress. Gunpowder was brought into the temples - you can imagine the collateral damage. From the Acropolis, you can see Ares Rock, the place where Greece's first Supreme Court was convened, as well as the the site of St. Paul's first sermon in Europe.
Parthenon The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena and features doric and ionic columns. I'll save my breath about how sound the architecture was (to correct for optical illusions), but what I will say is that I never knew friezes and pediments were originally painted! The pediment for the Parthenon tells the story of Athena and Poseidon bringing gifts to win over the Athenian people. The statue of Athena that used to be in the temple was 14 meters tall and made of gold and ivory. In the 17th century, the temple was bombed by a Venetian general who tried (in vain) to seize Athens from the Turks. Next to the Parthenon sits the Erechtheion, a temple that pays homage to both Athena and Poseidon. The architect placed six caryatids around one face of the temple. Unfortunately, one of those caryatids was taken to London and (much to Greece's consternation) never returned.
Temple of Athena Nike Did anybody else know that "nike" means victory in Greece? And that's why the shoe company chose that name? Apparently we've all been pronouncing it incorrectly - instead of "nigh-key," it's supposed to pronounced like the name "Nikki." The structure is also called the Temple of Wingless Victory because the Greeks wanted the fortitude and wisdom of Athena to remain in Athens.
Acropolis Museum I did not expect so much to be packed into one museum! There are over 4000 exhibits on display at the Acropolis Museum. The exterior is made entirely of glass and the front face of the museum was designed to reflect the Parthenon. Here we saw several models of the Acropolis as it changed with time (and changed several hands of leadership). In previous iterations Dionysus Theater sat at the base of Acropolis (built in the 6th century BC). There was also a conservatory for music which served both as a concert hall and school for musicians-in-training. This was built in the th century BC by Pericles next to the Dionysus Theater. The hospital of Athens also sat at the base of the Acropolis' slope.
Mt Lycabettus To save you the embarrassment that it caused me - the mountain's name is pronounced "lick-a-beh-toos." Atop the mountain sits the Church of St. George. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking. Mythologically, the creation of Lycabettus is created to Athena, who purportedly dropped a limestone mountain she had been carrying from the Pallene peninsula for the construction of the Acropolis. Our tour guide called it the nipple of Athens!
My mom and I have been having such a wonderful time hiking around the city! We're hoping to make a trip to the National Archaeological Museum, the Plaka neighborhood of Athens, and the Monastiraki marketplace! Last night we have the best hummus & seafood saganaki for dinner. Let's see what tonight's meal brings :)
