Athens: A mind-opening day on Acropolis Hill and in the Agoras.

The word of the day is august, not the month but the adjective defined as “inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur.”  That is Acropolis hill and the Parthenon.

The above is a snapshot from the roof top our hotel.  Needless to say it is awesome.

We spent yesterday morning climbing Acropolis hill. I say climbing because it felt like that as we walked up cobblestones that had been polished smooth as glass from the millions of prior visitors.  We heard later from the locals in our hotel that it was a particularly crowded day with many cruise ships in port. But the august feeling of reverence and admiration for the Parthenon, an amazing 2,457 year-old structure, was overwhelming for both of us.  Imagine, with an average familial generation length of 25 years, that is a thousand generations of life that have passed since the opening of the great temple to Athena. 

The grandeur of nation-states arising from tribal norms.  We spent over an hour just sitting and watching, while letting our minds imagine scenes of the great processions to the temple of the goddess Athena during the annual Panathenaic Festival.  The story was told in the frieze.  The frieze was a band of 115 carved, pictorial blocks surrounding the top of the building that are now gone.  The frieze was about 160 meters in length and about 130 meters are still in existence but no longer on the Parthenon itself.  They describe a great procession of horses and chariots followed by groups of men and women bring ceremonial vessels and sacrificial offerings and at the end was an offering, known as the peplos, to the goddess from the Athenian people.  To the right and left of the peplos scene sat the twelve Olympian Gods.

Unfortunately, we did not see the frieze but had to conjure up mental images of the great procession via the wonderful gift of imagination.  About 50 meters of the frieze are in the Acropolis  Museum that we plan to see later this week.

This is a picture of the Erecthion, another temple on top of the Acropolis near the Parthenon.

We then walked through two sets of ruins.  The oldest of which is the Ancient Agora.  It was the meeting place or 'downtown' of ancient Athens.  The center of commerce.  The center of education and knowledge.  We could imagine Socrates or Aristotle sharing their philosophies with their eager students of knowledge.  It was the rise of the first great and wealthy nation-state from the tribal history of the past.  The vast wealth allowed the building of the temples such as the Parthenon and Erecthion and the great meeting halls, the theaters known as odeon, and the stoa or covered walkway for public use.  

An odeon right below the Acropolis hill.

A reconstructed example of a stoa or covered walkway.

The more recent Agora was the Roman Agora.  After the Romans started ruling the Greeks, it appears that the Romans did not really rule Athens, but instead adopted the ways of the Athenians and celebrated a wonderful continuation of Athenian life. 

The Roman Agora

The practice of voting for self-rule was initiated.  An interesting by-product during the 5th century BC was the practice of Ostracism. It was a unique form of voting designed to protect against seekers of despotic power. The result of the ostracism vote was valid only if there was a quorum of 6,000 citizens voting. The candidate with the most votes was required to leave Athens for 10 years. So not only could you vote for something, but you could also vote against someone. 

And yes, at the end of the day, we took a break and had a wonderful dessert.  Yogurt and honey.  It taste much better than it sounds.  We did not get a picture of the dessert so we'll have to have another later.  We had it at a restaurant in the Monastiraki Square market.  A very lively set of narrow alleys crowed with markets, flea markets and restaurants.  

We'll see what tomorrow brings.