Acting out in Athens

Greek Folk Dance

The best time to visit Athens is in the spring (April, May, early June) or fall (mid-September, October); so of course we came in August. This is one of the hottest months, as well as the time of year that Athens has the most tourists. Was it hot – yes! Was it crowded – sort of. If you went to the tourist places, and who doesn’t, there were substantial numbers of people; if you hung out in museums or interesting places without air conditioning, it wasn’t too crowded. Our best idea was to go to the ruins early in the morning and save the museums for later in the day. In the evening the best place to be was in a café that overlooked the water with some sort of cold drink in your hand.


Although there is an old city in Athens, much of the modern Metroplex

Pomegranate growing near the Lykeion

has grown up around the scattered temples and ruins. From our hotel window we could see the Parthenon and the Lycabettus, but not much of anything else. And it’s a fair hike to the old city and to many of the historical sites; although it was hot, it was worth the hike to explore the area. Athens, inhabited for at least 5000 years is the foundation of Western civilization. Several Greek scholars have written about how the city got its name. They all tell some variance of the tale of Athena and Poseidon competing for honor. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, producing a spring that represented naval power; Athena brought forth a sacred olive tree to symbolize peace and prosperity. The citizens of the city chose Athena, naming the city Athens. Much later the Poseidon was honored by a town in Southern Italian; the city was Poseidonia (now called Paestum). When we visited the Parthenon, we got to see the contest between Athena and Poseidon immortalized in the sculptures of the West Pediment.

The Acropolis, or ‘high city’, was probably inhabited in the Neolithic period. It is an easily defensible site, sitting on a rocky point above the Cephisian Plain. Once you’re up on top, it is easy to see why people

Residential area near the Parthenon

wanted to live there; you could see friends and enemies approaching from any direction. Although there is no longer much evidence of the inhabitants, the Parthenon and other religious sites within the Acropolis were surrounded by a village. Places of business and social importance were actually down on the plain, more or less surrounding the Acropolis. In antiquity there were steps cut into the side of the hill that led down to the source of water. Now, you scramble up very steep, slick, weathered limestone and marble to get up on the Acropolis. At one time the Greek government had actually cut roads up to the top with tourists riding up in buses or cars; currently, you walk to the top and it isn’t easy. In antiquity, with its secure stronghold on the Acropolis and its access to the sea, Athens was one of the leading centers of trade and prosperity in the region. Until the 9^th century BC the chief city officials (nobility), and the commander-in-chief ran the government. During this same time other towns around Athens were incorporated into the city, making it the largest and wealthiest city state on the Greek mainland. However, this created a class of people excluded from political life. Political and social unrest grew so that by the 7^th century BC, the ruling body appointed Draco (from which comes the word ‘draconian’) to write strict new laws. These laws failed abysmally so in the 6^th century BC Solon was appointed to write a new constitution.

Solon’s constitution was supposed to deal with political and economic

Cistern built in Aristotle's school in 334 BC

issues by abolishing slavery for debtors, opening up trade, and breaking up huge tracts of land. Politically, this created four classes of people based on wealth and their ability to perform military service; the poor were the largest class and although they could vote, they could not hold office. In retrospect it seems odd that the people of the time didn’t see that this was not going to work for very long. Eventually the government was overthrown and although some of the dictators were benevolent, most were not. In 510 BC Cleisthenes, a radical politician took charge establishing a democracy in Athens that lasted 170 years. And then the wars began. The Persians sacked Athens twice before being driven out by the Athenians and Spartans. The Spartans, along with some other city states fought the Athenians. Former allies turned against Sparta, while former enemies sided with Athens to defeat Sparta. Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 BC in but then Athens and Sparta turned against Thebes. Meanwhile, the Greek kingdom of Macedon was rising and in 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated Athens and Thebes. His son, Alexander the Great, broadened the boarders of Greece through military exploits, making the political structure of a city state obsolete. Athens continued to be a wealthy city with a dynamic cultural life, but lost its standing as a leading political power.

Monument to Melina Mercouri

Over the next several centuries Athens was possessed by the Romans (in particular Hadrian), Byzantine Empire, Italians, and the Ottoman Empire; it wasn’t until 1821 that Greece became a sovereign country naming Athens as its capital. The changing politics affected the economics of the region, but intellectuals still populated the country. The list of artists, philosophers, and scientists is legion: Aeschines, Aeschylus, Antiphon, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Euripides, Herodotus, Hippocrates, Homer, Isocrates, Phidias, Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Xenophon, to name but a few. Much later Melina Mercouri became renowned for her role in Never on Sunday, a movie that brought Greece into the spotlight for a lovely place to visit. The change in leadership also changed the culture from worship of the old gods to Christianity; Athens was overrun by the crusades and much of the ancient art was sold to other countries. Many of the temples were destroyed, but others were turned into storage facilities, mosques, catholic churches, or protestant churches. In the 19^th century a burst of construction gave Athens the University of Athens (1837), the National Gardens of Athens (1840), the National Library of Greece (1842), the current Greek Parliament Building (Old Royal Palace; 1843), the Old Parliament Building (1858), the City Hall (1874), the Zappeion Exhibition Hall (1878), the Greek National Academy (1885) and the current Presidential Palace (‘New’ Royal Palace; 1897). And finally the city won the rights to host the 1896 Summer Olympics. Athens continued to prosper until World War II when the country was taken over by Nazi Germany; the people

Aegean Sea

experienced many privations, leaving the city devastated. Although liberated in 1944, the Greeks continued to fight communist influence. Eventually the city began to grow again, becoming a tourist mecca, as well as a place for the Greek people to work. However, the rapid growth brought horrid traffic congestion and air pollution, both causing damage to the ancient monuments. At one point you could not see the sea from the Acropolis. The loss of the 1996 Summer Olympics spurred the government to start major infrastructure projects and to pass ordinances that restricted use of cars in Athens city center. The changes allowed Greece to host the 2004 Olympic Games.

Greek Folk Dance

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