The Splendor of Athens

The last day of my visit to Greece, was a day trip in tourist bus, in the city of Athens, the capitol of Greece! I was dying with anticipation! Imagine, touring the city which laid the foundations of the Western Civilization. It was the cradle of Western civilization. 

Athens was the heart of Ancient Greece, it’s empires and civilization. In the classical age, it was a powerful city-state. It was the center of art and philosophy. It was the birthplace of democracy. Its architecture is still influencing public buildings in the world today. It was ‘Numero Uno’ in many matters!

                                                                                                     

                  Temple of Zeus       

                                                                                       

We passed through the Temple of Zeus, where as usual only a few columns were standing for the visitors to view. It was almost at the center of the city. We also glimpsed the Hadrian Arch on the site, constructed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This got me interested to look up the history of the city Athens. 

 

                                                                                                    Hadrian Arch

Athens has 7000 years of history. The city might have got its name from the goddess Athena offspring of Zeus, whose face is beautifully drawn in many places, including the hotel where we stayed. 

  Goddess Athena, painted on the hotel's walls

In 1400 BC, Mycenaean civilization flourished here, which in turn drew inspiration from the Minoan civilization that flourished in these places in 2000 BC, especially in Crete. The remnants of this Minoan civilization, I had the privilege to visit in Acrotiri excavations, in the island of Santorini. 

By 6th Century BC, classical Greek civilization started and democracy was introduced here in 508 BC. Play writers like Sophocles, Historians Herodotus, and Thucydides, Physician Hippocrates and most importantly philosopher like Socrates lived and contributed to their civilization, which would lay the foundations of the Western civilization. This period was called the Golden age of Athens.

As we passed through the Academy of Athens, with the sculptures of Socrates and Aristotle adorning the front, I recalled the famous “Academy” of Plato, which he established in 387 BC, where he taught and where Aristotle studied for twenty years. It survived till 529 AD, when it was closed under orders from Roman Emperor Justinian II. 

Similarly, Aristotle established his own academy called “The Lyceum” in 335 BC, which was destroyed along with its famous library in 267 AD, with the sack of the city by Goths. 

The rich heritage of these philosophers and their writings motivated people to cherish free thinking and democratic mode of governance, with discussions and arriving at decisions, which are still with us in the modern world. 

                                                                                     

                                                                                                                 Parliament

We passed the Royal palace, which now functions as Parliament, the National Library, with Doric style heavy columns with round capitals at the top with no base. You can see this type of architecture replicated in the columns of our own Rashrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi.

We also passed by the National Library, Athens University and the old Parliament which is now a museum. National Archaeological Museum also passed by. For want of time we couldn’t stop and gawk at these beautiful monuments. The loss was ours alone!

At the modern stadium, designed just like the classical ones, we disembarked and looked around. It was massive and built completely of white marble, the material that the ancients used in building temples and buildings in the Parthenon and other places. It was built in the same place where ancient stadium stood centuries before and it could accommodate 65,000 onlookers. The very first revived Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896 in this stadium, and later the Summer Olympic games were held in 2004. 

                   The Stadium

Finally, we reached the Acropolis hills, which house the ancient Greek classical buildings famously known for Parthenon temple. This temple was dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the Greeks considered as their patron goddess. The construction was completed by 432 BC, and was meant to celebrate Hellenic victory over the Persian attack and as a thanksgiving to their goddess. It also served as a city treasury. It was of classical Doric style. 

On the way to Parthenon, Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The temple was damaged and reconstructed thereafter. During Byzantium time it was used as a church and during Ottoman’s time as a mosque. But in the 15th century AD, the Ottomans used it as an ammunition dump. In the battle it got ignited and major destruction to the temple and other nearby buildings resulted. Many marble sculptures were taken away and some sold to the

British in 1816, who exhibit till today in their British Museum. 

             The columns of Parthenon

A row of Caryatids, marble statues of young women, that supported the south porch of the Erechtheion building in Acropolis, was a beautiful vision to hold, the originals kept inside the Acropolis Museum on Acropolis hills. The fine folds of the garments worn by these young girls, who supported the building, could be seen through the marvelous work of the sculptors. 

  

                                                                                      A row of Caryatids serving as columns

Two Caryatids in the Museum

To recapitulate history of Acropolis citadel, there were three wars that happened to be fought here. The first one was in 490 BC, when Persian army under the rule of Darius I attacked the rebellious Greek states, and the Persians were defeated. Parthenon was built to commemorate that victory. 

                                                                               

       The Acropolis Hills with Parthenon          

Persians under Xerxes attacked once again and after fierce battle the Greeks won the battle again at Salamis in 480 BC. Resenting the ascendancy of Athens, other states fought them in the Peloponnesian war from 431- 404 and Athens was defeated and its power and prestige declined. It is interesting to know that both the Emperors Darius and Xerxes are mentioned in the Bible in the books of Daniel and Esther. 

                         Massive columns of Parthenon

Greece was swallowed up in the expanding kingdom of Philip II of Macedonia and then later the Empire of Alexander the Great. It then passed on to the hands of Romans, who had great fascination for Greece for it was Greek civilization that was ruling those days. 

It is good to remember that the whole New Testament was written in Greek, which was the lingua franca of those days. The New Testament writers used a form of local Greek known as ‘Koinonia Greek,’ which was commonly spoken by the populace. 

   Entrance to Parthenon and other buildings

                  crowded with tourists

Byzantine rule followed and in 9-10th century AD it came under the influence of the Crusaders and became prosperous. But in 1458 AD, it was conquered by Ottoman rule. In 1832 AD, the Greeks fought and won their independence.

Sculptures in the Museum. Fine folds of the       dresses seen 

Today Greece is a modern democracy, with a population of 6,65,000 people, ranked 39th richest country in the world. However, during 2006-2008, it came under the Great Recession and government debt crisis, when its GDP growth turned to minus. It picked up and got out of the debt trap with severe austerity measures, but still it is growing only at 0.02% in 2016, which is very low.

        Modern tram running in Athens

                                                                                        A statue of a Runner, in Athens metropolis

This was obvious in some ways, as we did see many poor people lying on cardboard planks in the city squire and in front of other buildings, with a cup in the front to receive alms from the passers-by. 

The economy is still to pick up and I sincerely wish and pray that the great ancient Greece will be restored to its ancient glory and prosperity and I wish the government and their people well.