This morning we met our Fez travel group and Steve, our tour guide, in the lobby of our hotel in Athens. Even though our tour officially had ended this morning and was not meant to include any tours of Athens, Steve had offered to give us a quick day tour of some of the sights and to provide us with a bit of history.
The area now known as Athens has been occupied as far back as 6000 B.C. The early Greeks however were not unified but divided into several tribal areas around the Akropolis. The tribes weren't unified until Theseus. Theseus was the son of Aegeas, the Mycenaean King, who had been worried as he had no children as his heirs, so he slept with a woman called Aethra who walked across the bay and gave birth to Theseus. When Theseus was born Aegeas decided to return to Athens but before he went he buried his sandals and his sword under a huge rock and told Aethra that when Theseus was grown if he were hero enough he could bring the items back to Athens as proof of his birthright. To get to Athens Theseus could go by sea (the easy way) or by land. By land Theseus would have to pass six entrances to the underworld which were guarded by various bandits. Theseus being young and brave chose the difficult path and defeated the six bandits. When Theseus returned to Athens he learned that after King Minos of Crete defeated the Athenians that he demanded that in 9 year intervals 7 girls and 7 boys be sent to Crete to face the Minotaur. Theseus thought this was wrong and volunteered to go slay the Minotaur. Aegeas tried to convince him not to go, but Theseus prevailed, but promised his father that if successful he would return with a white sail on his ship. Once in Crete, Theseus's love (who happened to be King Minos's daughter) gave him a ball of string so he could find his way out of the maze. Theseus then successfully slayed the Minotaur and saved all of the children and returned to Athens. But in his excitement Theseus forgot to put up his white sail, thus when he returned to Athens the black sail was still up and Aegeas fraught with grief threw himself off his balcony. Theseus then as King decided to unify the tribes and held games to determine which tribe the city would take on as its name. Poseidon put his sword into the earth and out sprung a horse. The people of Athens were impressed but thought the horse was too war-like. Athena then put her sword into the ground and out sprung an olive tree. The people of Athens were impressed and thought there was no better symbol for their city, and hence the city of Athens, or Athena, was born. Athenians claim that the olive tree found next to the Temple of Athena atop the Akropolis is the original olive tree that sprung out when Athena thrust her sword into the earth
After our brief history/mythology lesson we walked to the Akropolis. It was a bit of a hike, as unfortunately the metro was not operating due to strikes. On our way to the Akropolis we passed the Roman Agora, the Ancient Greek Agora, Hadrian's Library, and other impressive ruins. From there we made our way up to the Akropolis, past the Theater of Dionysis, and through the Propylaeum (entrance) past the Temple of Athena Nike (Goddess of Victory) and then the most recognizable site in the world, the Parthenon comes into view. It really is quite impressive, despite its being masked in scaffolding. To the left of the Parthenon is the Temple of Athena and the olive tree mentioned in the legend above. It was quite interesting to see all of the work going on. They believe that early reconstruction in the 1800s was inaccurate which led to some problems with the structures in recent history, so they have been working to reconstruct the buildings properly, trying to find as many original pieces as possible and matching them up using computer technology and making filler pieces to fit perfectly between the original pieces in any gaps.
After the Akropolis Steve took us to the prison of Socrates where Socrates was imprisoned for 30 days before he was forced to choose between an excruciating death or suicide by drinking Hemlock, as you may recall, he chose the Hemlock. Socrates was imprisoned for his forward thinking, some of which included his believe in only one god in an age of polytheism and his believe in an after life. Plato and Socrates's other followers joined him in his final hours after he drank the Hemlock to record his words. All of what we have written by Socrates was transcribed to his followers between the time he drank the Hemlock and death.
From Socrates's prison we strolled over to the Hill of the Pinks, passing the Dipylon Gates on our way. The Dipylon Gates were part of the 8 meter high wall that surrounded the city of Athens and all the way to its port. The wall was why Athens was so hard to take during the Spartan War. Typically, the Spartans took cities by surrounding it and starving out the city, but since Athens was protected by the wall all the way to its port, this did not work for the Spartans. It wasn't until the Spartans decided to move into Athens by Sea that they were finally able to overtake it. The Hill of the Pinks was home to a platform where Pericles, Socrates, and other influential Athenians gave their speeches. Much business was also done on the Hill of the Pinks. At the back of the hall there was a place where citizens could place their chip that every official citizen of Athens received and when there were 6000 chips there was a quorum and business could be done.
After Steve gave us his own rendition of an ancient Athenian speech, we headed in the direction of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to watch the changing of the guards. We finished our day tour with Steve around mid-day after the changing of the guards and said our goodbyes. The remainder of our time in Athens, two more days, will be spent on our own. It was nice to have a guide to help us get oriented before we were on our own. After leaving Steve, we leisurely made our way back to the hotel Fez had arranged for us to pick up our bags and head to the apartment Sue had booked for us for the next three nights. After a long day in the summer heat of Athens, we enjoyed a leisurely evening relaxing at the Apartment, tomorrow we will hit the sights again!
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