On Sunday (free admission day!) we spent the morning exploring the Acropolis archeological site. The Acropolis is the rocky mount in the center of Athens upon which the famous Parthenon (as well as other monuments) sits. It is a winding climb of at least 200 feet to the base of the Acropolis. The Parthenon (the famous temple honoring Athena) is massive up close, and truly is the impressive classical Greek structure so often imitated. Built around 450 BC, it covers the ruins of an earlier temple. The formula dictating the design of classical Doric architecture called for dimensions with the number of columns on the narrow ends (i.e. 6) to be doubled then add one (i.e. 13) to get the number of columns on the wide sides.
Sideline on history (Stan blogging now): The Parthenon would be more intact than it is today if it weren’t for the Venetians. Who knew? In 1687 Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians, then still a formidable world power, attempted to retake Athens, which was formerly under their control. Unfortunately at that time the Ottomans were storing their gunpowder in the Parthenon. Thus, when the Venetians commenced shelling the Acropolis from a nearby hill, a direct hit on the Parthenon ignited the gunpowder and the Parthenon was severely damaged. Subsequently, the Venetians held the city for less than a year. Serves them right! One can’t help but wonder how much more of this magnificent structure would remain intact if the Ottomans had stored their gunpowder elsewhere!
OK, 450 BC, that’s almost 2500 years old. Whoa. Kinda tough to wrap your mind around the fact there was an advanced, sophisticated, democratic society functioning at such a high level that many years ago. It’s amazing really. Here’s a way to try and put the concept into perspective: every generation a handful of people live to be 100 years old, not often, but it happens. So think about someone who was born in 450 BC and lived to be 100 and passed the baton, so to speak, to the next centurion, and the next and the next, etc., etc. So if that happened only 25 times that gets us to today. Thinking in those terms we really haven’t been here all that long.
Here’s another perspective on time to keep it all in context. Back in the early-mid 90s I (obviously still Stan!) was reading a biography of the famous US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. One of his judicial clerks in the 1920s and 30s was Alger Hiss (later a notorious figure caught up in the McCarthy red-scare witch-hunts of the 1950s.) The author of the biography (I’ve forgotten his name) was pointing out the fact that a man who was still alive today (Hiss at least in the mid 90s) had worked with and been a confidante of a man (Holmes) who had fought in the US Civil War, and whose grandmother could recall as a youngster the days of the US Revolutionary War. Only three lifetimes take us from the founding of the country to the present! We live in a young country indeed.
Here’s an Athens bonus round: there were no touts or tourist hounds harassing us on the grounds of the Acropolis or any other Athenian tourist sites for that matter, at least not on this particular Sunday. Apparently the Greek authorities have taken a hard line on this (perhaps only since the 2004 Olympics?) Tout free is a good thing, a pleasant surprise, and truly made the experience more enjoyable and authentic.
Another historical point: so there existed this fantastic and impressive society in classical 4th and 5th century Greece. What happened after that? Aside from the Venetian pyrotechnic display, not a lot more went down. During the days of the Roman Empire Athens continued to be an important city. But after 300 AD or so Athens found itself a largely irrelevant provincial backwater in the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. In modern Athens, other than the Acropolis and a few other ancient structures, the buildings and architecture are of relatively recent vintage. A few neo-classical buildings from the early-mid 1800s stand but most of the structures that comprise the sprawling modern city of Athens are less than 100 years old, and pretty non-descript, to be honest. (Lisa says they are ugly.)
Traipsing around the ruins for a couple of hours was pretty tiring. We made our way back down to the Plaka area for a coffee. Somewhat energized, we wandered the peaceful Agora, or ancient marketplace (more ruins.) A fabulous lunch followed. Lisa will fill you in on the Carnation Café, in another post.
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