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 2001                                    PICTURE GALLERY
   Hi-End         
    Show           
    Athens        

Greece is a country crossroads between East and West.  The inhabitants of Hellas have given humanity the lights of knowledge and philosophy.  It is estimated that no less than a third or so of English vocabulary has Hellenic etymological roots.  

The most famous natural feature of Hellas is the high, shelf-like lime-stone outcrop which forms the Athenian Acropolis or "high city".  The acropolis not only served as a fortified citadel and the home for numerous religious buildings --notably the temple to Athena Parthenos (the Parthenon) -- but it became the site of important mythic events in the Athenian past.  

The Acropolis, as seen from the hotel window

One can climb the sacred rock via a very old uphill slope

 
nearby the Acropolis

Propylaea

At the top of the uphill, already since the mycenean times, the entrance to the Parthenon was protected by a glorious passage, the Propylon.  Later, this passage gave its place to a rectangle edifice which was conceived as highlighting the holiness of the space.  Through its main hall, which also served as its main entrance -- Propylaea -- passed the Sacred Way

The Parthenon

The Parthenon is the holiest of all the monuments in Athens, already famous in antiquity as a masterpiece of the Greek architecture.  Its construction began in 447 BCE upon the ruins of an earlier temple of the goddess, which was destroyed by Persians.  It was completed in 432 BCE.

Erechtheion

At the northern edge of Acropolis rise the walls of the Erechtheion.  This building was devoted to the worship of several old divinities.  On its southern side there is a porch that has six female statues named "Caryatids" after the model girls from the city of Caryae, near Sparta.  The second Kore from the left was removed by Lord Elgin and in her place there was installed a plaster cast.  At present, due to the serious pollution of the atmosphere, the rest of the Caryatids are in the Acropolis Museum.  Now, their copies rest on the Caryatid porch. 

view from the Acropolis

Above the walls of the Acropolis the eye embrances the entire city.  Far down, the pillars of the temple of Zeus Olympios (middle image) is visible.

The Odeion of Herodes Atticus

In 161CE the Greek nobleman Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes built a theatre in memory of his wife, Aspasia Regilla.  This was a roofed building that hosted music events and was thus called Odeion.  The audience area consisted of 32 rows of seats and could hold around 5000 people.  Between 1950 and 1961 the audience area was restored and floored with pentelic marble, and the orchestra with Hymettus marble -- all in order to be used again for performances, notably classic tragedies and comedies, a tradition still preserved every summer during the Festival of Athens.

 
The Academy

In the Hellenistic period (323-30 BCE), the gymnasium was the quintessentially "Hellenic" institution.  The gymnasium and the palaestra (wrestling school) were both training grounds and social centers for young men of the upper classes.  The gymnasia housed exercise rooms and equipment, baths, sanctuaries of gods, and libraries; gardens and parks.  In Athens, the three oldest and most famous gymnasia were the Academy (above), the Lyceum, and the Cynosarges.  Each of these also housed a philosophical school in the fourth century and several of Plato's dialogues are set in palaestrae.  

(close-up) statue of Athena on top of the Academy building

 

city views

 

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