Amanda Roush: Acropolis

Our second full day in Athens was spent visiting the Acropolis and the various temples, theaters and other ancient sites concentrated in the center of Athens.  We spent most of the morning in the Acropolis museum checking out all of the artifacts and sculptures that archaeologists have found and preserved.  Interestingly enough the entire city of ancient Athens is mostly built over and inaccessible.  When the new museum was being built the construction uncovered an entire labyrinth of houses and rooms.  The museum was built on stilts, over this archaeological find, with glass panes in some places of the floor so when you are in the museum you can look down into the site.  There is still excavation work going on we were lucky enough to see some archaeologists at work!

Glass floor in the museum

Much of what is displayed in the museum is actually what was found in the remains of the houses underneath.  In addition, pieces of the Parthenon's sculptures are also preserved here, while replicas are now placed at the actual site of the Parthenon.

Theater of Dionysus

The hike up to the Acropolis its self wasn't too bad; we walked past the ruins of theaters where the plays of Euripides and Sophocles and other prominent writers of the day would have been performed.  Interestingly enough, while the plays were written as entertainment they were also written as part of a competition.  When a playwright was successful he would erect a monument to display his prize as victor.  One of the theaters is still in use today after being restored.  If we are lucky the group might get to see a play in the theater later during the trip!

Kate and I at the top of the Acropolis

The temple of Nike

Once we reached the top the view was amazing! You could see for miles around in every direction! All in all it was breathtaking.  I was surprised to learn that the Parthenon isn't the only building situated on the Acropolis, in actuality there are three plus a gate house that is every bit as impressive as the temples.  The temple of Athena Nike (Athena Victory) is located right next to the gate house.  It is a small, rather modestly sized temple compared to the other two.  The next temple is called the Erechthion, it is a duel temple honoring both Poseidon and Athena.  The myth says that when Athens was founded both Athena and Poseidon wanted to be the patron of the new city.  To decide who would win the city a gift giving competition was held.  Poseidon struck the rock and a saltwater spring appeared.  While the gift was impressive, it was fairly useless.  Athena gave the city an olive tree, and won the competition, which is why the city is named after her.  The people chose her as the victor but didn't want to alienate the god of the sea, so the Erechthion was built to commemorate the competition and honor both deities.

The Parthenon is the largest and most imposing building on the Acropolis.  As you walk through the gates it completely dominants your view.  Traditionally, the Parthenon is thought of as being the bleached white color it is today.  Honestly, whenever I pictured it before this trip I imagined old philosophers in togas and sandals holding debates while walking around it.  If this is your only view of the Parthenon you’re not alone, however, your view is incomplete.  Back in it’s hay day the Parthenon was brightly colored and adorned, the rest of the buildings were too!  Apart from learning that the Parthenon was not always the skeleton-white building we know it as today, we also discovered some of the history of the Parthenon that is skipped over and discarded.  For instance, did you know that the Parthenon was used as a Christian church longer than a pagan temple to Athena?  Or that it was used as a Mosque after that?  Or that is was used as an ammunitions storehouse and was blown up?  I’m guessing not, and that like myself you may have only thought of the Parthenon and Acropolis in the Classical Greek sense.  In fact, the Acropolis was occupied by many forces over the course of it’s history.  One of the stories our guide, Maria, told was that during the Nazi German occupation two boys climbed the steep side of the Acropolis and replaced the Nazi flag with a Greek flag without getting caught.  Stories like these get lost in the wonderment of ancient Greece, and consequently modern Greece is sometimes forgotten about.  It is the multitude of layers of history that led our class to wonder weather one period in history should be favored over another.  While we haven’t reached a solid conclusion there was a general consensus that the entire history of the Parthenon should be appreciated.  One of the wonderments was how much older this building is and how many more stories it has than even our own country’s history that seems small and short in comparison.