Athens – The Glory that was Greece

We woke up to see ourselves moored in the port of Piraeus, with the faint morning light reflected on the water and playing on the warehouses and buildings lining the port.  Our ship was not alone; there were at least two other massive cruise ships in the port, and numerous tour buses were parked behind the fenced area alongside the docks waiting for the rush of tourists eager to start the day’s excursions.  Even though it was early morning, the air was not fresh but quite warm and humid, so humid and the sky so hazy that distant objects were blurred.  Anticipating a very hot daytrip, we pared down to the essentials, and, with full water bottles, met our tour guide, Yota, at our designated bus.  During the drive into the center of Athens, Yota gave us some statistics about life in Athens:  the ancient port of Piraeus was the largest in Europe, with Greece controlling 20% of the world’s shipping.  No wonder Aristotle Onassis was so wealthy.  The city of Athens is 7000 years old, and has a population today of about 3 million people.  Compare that with the entire country of Greece with a population of 4.5 million.  It seems as if everyone wants to live in Athens. 

We were leaving the port area (limani = port) and heading for the ancient Acropolis, the name coming from akro = height and polis = city, so “atop of the city.”  On the Acropolis is the Parthenon, the most famous building in the world, and named for the virgin goddess Athena (parthenos = virgin).  Driving through the city we could see the effects of the population boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  The neo-classical architecture of the 19^th century that exemplified the newly created capital of independent Greece was overshadowed with the hastily constructed modern buildings, boxy and grim-looking, to handle the out-of-control growth.  The perimeter of the city is a mass of charmless, graffiti-covered urban sprawl.  Add to that the intense heat, and the initial impression is a bit off-putting.  Yota told us we were lucky to be visiting in early September; just two weeks before the temperature was soaring to 41 deg C (about 108 deg F).  Whoa, hot even for me. 

Our bus drive took us past what Yota called the nicest part of the modern city, a trio of neo-classical buildings called “The Trilogy” all designed by the Danish architects Theophil and Christian Hansen in the 1880’s -- the National Library, the University of Athens, and the Athens Academy.  These were part of the city plan commissioned by the first king of modern Greece, Otto I of Bavaria.  How did a Bavarian prince become king of Greece?  Good question and interesting story.  Greece may have been the birthplace of democracy, but it lost its independence centuries ago when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.  The Greek War of Independence (1821 – 1830) against the Ottoman Empire inflamed the “Philhellenes” of Europe (lovers of ancient Greek culture) who came to Greece to fight the Turks, among them the British poet Lord Byron.  With the defeat of the Ottomans, the “Great Powers” -- that is, Britain, Russia, and France -- appointed Prince Otto of Bavaria to be king (Otto was a Wittlesbach, the same family as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria whose palace we toured on Corfu) perhaps because he was a descendant of the Greek Byzantine Komnenos imperial dynasty.  As a Philhellene, Otto did much to rebuild Athens, and restore its ancient glory, primarily by moving the first capital of liberated Greece from Nafplio to Athens in 1834.  After a 30-year reign, Otto was deposed in 1862, but the Greek state continued.

We were driven to the huge, pure white marble Olympic Stadium, called Kallimarmaro (= beautiful marble).  In 1896 with the revival of the Olympic Games, the Kallimarmaro Stadium in Athens was the centerpiece of the opening ceremonies, and for the 2004 Athens Olympics it was the scene of the finish of the Marathon. Before we got off the bus for a few minutes of picture-taking, Yota told us this stadium was on the exact site of the original Panathenaic Stadium dating back to 330 BC, also built of pure marble.  Standing at the open end of the enormous horseshoe shaped stadium, I could imagine it packed with 60,000 cheering spectators, colorful flags from all over the world waving, and the bands playing.  Great flashback.  Turning around I got my first glimpse of the Acropolis, with the profile of the Parthenon sitting on top.

The Acropolis, the highlight of this excursion, would be a tricky climb.  Over the centuries the marble paving stones and steps leading up to the gates have been worn down and polished to a slippery surface, and we were warned to be very careful.  Alighting from the bus, my head was in a fog of philhellenism as I climbed trance-like up the path to the main gate, the Propylaia.  With this overwhelming monument, built from 437 to 432 BC we entered the Golden Age of Perikles, the Athenian leader who promoted democracy and initiated a grand program of building public works that has come to represent the political and cultural achievements of Greece.  Perikles (495 to 429 BC) was the Golden Age of Greece.  As the “First Citizen” of Athens, the name given him by the contemporary historian Thucydides, Perikles was the “strategos” who led the Greeks out of the last phases of their Dark Age.  The next 150 years saw the amazing era of enormous creativity in philosophy and science, drama and literature, art and architecture.  However, this was also the era of the Peloponnesian Wars, which ultimately weakened the city-states of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes making them vulnerable to Macedonian domination in the form of Philip and his son Alexander the Great.

With so many tour groups and so many lectures, and all the construction cranes, the cacophony at the top of the Acropolis was jarring.  I admit to having great difficulty staying with my group, to the consternation of my companions who later threatened to put me on a leash.  But I wanted to wander over this sacred territory on my own, away from the crowds, and the din, and experience for myself the ancient spirit and the remnants of the “glory that was Greece.”  It was not to be. 

After passing through the Propylaia, we stepped over the tumble of stones and beheld that perfect Doric temple and enduring symbol of Ancient Greek Civilization, the Parthenon.  Our guide pointed out that the reconstruction of the Parthenon has been ongoing for the last 40 years, and may take a decade more, and yet the building originally took nine years to complete (447 to 438 BC).  But it is a very complex building:  not until serious restoration work was started in the 1960’s were the true complexities uncovered.  For example, instead of a rectilinear building, the Parthenon is in fact a set of subtle curves.  The central line of the floor of the cella, the central room, is higher than the outer edges, and the steps are slightly higher at the center, with the effect of making what is a curved surface appear level at a distance.  The walls of the cella and the surrounding columns all lean inward slightly to relieve the impression of a mass of stone and give a lighter appearance.  The columns have a slight bulge in the midsection, known as “entasis” to make the columns appear straight from a distance.  Every aspect of the building is designed to comply with the “Golden Ratio” -- that magic ratio of 1 to 1.618 that is unaccountably visually pleasing. 

It is still disturbing to remember that this perfect building, now an empty stand of columns, survived almost intact from the 5^th century BC until 1687.  During a Venetian siege, the Ottoman Turks stored ammunition and gunpowder in the Parthenon, which when hit by Venetian artillery, exploded.  Criminal stupidity displayed on both sides.  We again heard how the British Lord Elgin removed, at his own expense and with some dubious paperwork from the Ottoman authorities, the Parthenon Marbles from Greece in 1803 and sold them to the British Museum where they remain to this day, a source of controversy between the Greek and British governments.  While many may see that act as grand looting, I still think Lord Elgin saved the Marbles, which include the statues from both the west and east pediments, and the friezes of the interior, from destruction. Over the centuries, marble statues have been ‘burned’ in kilns to extract lime; who knows how many priceless masterpieces of antiquity have disappeared in the lime ovens?

Of course the other marvelous building on the Acropolis is the Erechtheion, constructed where legend has it the sea-god Poseidon struck the rocks with his trident to bring forth a salt-water spring, and where Athena planted the first olive tree for the benefit of the Athenians.  In gratitude, the people chose Athena as their patroness and dedicated the Parthenon to her.  The outstanding architectural feature of the Erechtheion is the Porch of the Caryatids, the group or maiden statues used as columns supporting the roof of the porch.  This beautiful Ionic building was almost destroyed in 1827 during the Greek War of Independence by a Turkish artillery shell. 

Reluctantly climbing back down the path, we were led past the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, built by the Romans in 161 AD into the western edge of the Acropolis rock, and restored in 1955 so that it is used today for plays and concerts.  Now out of time, we were herded back on the bus (I was last and was nearly left behind) with the next stop the National Archeological Museum, to see the priceless collection of Neolithic, Mycenaean, Cycladic, Classical, and Hellenistic artifacts.  I came face to face with the “Mask of Agamemnon” the famous gold death mask found by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, and which dates from the mid-1600’s BC.  Schliemann really started the modern science of archaeology, by insisting that the Trojan War wasn’t just a Homeric legend, and set out to prove it by searching for Troy.  After years of digging for Troy in Anatolia (now Turkey) he turned his attention to Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon to uncover much of the ruined citadel, and found what he called the “Treasury of Atreus” What a story! 

Touring the National Museum took up the rest of our excursion time, and oh yes, forgot to mention the shopping time we were given in the area of the old town called the Plaka.  But by then all I wanted was a glass of ouzo, and a chance to look at all the photos on my digital camera.  While waiting for the bus to collect us, “C” found a statue by the square in front of the Mitropoli cathedral.  We figured out it was a memorial statue of Constantine Paleologus, the last Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, who at the Siege of Constantinople in 1453 was last seen on the walls fighting the Ottoman Turks.  The Fall of Constantinople is regarded as a milestone marking the end of the Middle Ages.  If you’re interested in reading more about this, try “The Fall of Constantinople” by Steven Runciman, a brilliant book.

This taste of the “best of Athens” was just the briefest of tastes.  I will need to come back, and with sufficient time to really explore.