Athens

The night train to Athens was only a night train inasmuch as it ran at night; fortunately, my first class Eurail ticket allowed me to sit in a quieter compartment with five other people rather than in a rowdy car. So between sleeping pills, earplugs, a facemask, and three days of exhaustion from Mount Athos, I think I got a good five hours of sleep before arriving at 6am.

From the train station I worked out the metro system (boy am I glad I took a little Greek) and found my way to Monasteraki Square. Monasteraki and Syntagma Squares are the two ends of Ermou Street, the main artery through Athens' nicest neighborhood, the Plaka. My hostel was right off Monasteraki; it's run by internationals, and called Athenstyle. Like Jimmy's Place in Selcuk and Fauzi Azar in Nazareth, I highly recommend it. Their lobby is part lounge, part cafe and bar, and part tourism bureau; better yet, they have a rooftop bar and lounge with a nightly happy hour and an unbeatable view of the Acropolis.

Since it was seven in the morning by the time I got there, my room obviously wasn't ready, but they were happy to let me crash on the couch downstairs in the pool hall. So after three hours of catching up on sleep, I got up around 10:30 and began my Rick Steves walking tour of Athens.

Athens can be magnificently charming, or horrendous. You have to have a good guide, and once again, Rick Steves didn't disappoint. I hopped the metro to Syntagma Square, and the tour took a meandering four hours before getting back to Monasteraki, a mere one kilometer away from the starting point.

If Monasteraki Square is the social and cultural center of Athens, Syntagma Square is the center of its political and economic life. Coming up from the metro station the first thing I saw was the parliament building. I'd arrived at the top end of the hour, so I got to witness the changing of the evzone guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (right), which sits just in front of parliament. The evzone guards left a little something to be desired (I mean, I've seen the British and the Danish do it), but the tomb was excellent: the shallow relief is of a dead Greek soldier, depicted with his shield. Spartan! Come back with your shield... or on it!

From here took me along Ermou street, a wide, brick-paved pedestrian thoroughfare with just the occassional moped- just like Ben Yehuda St. in Jerusalem, but like the pedestrian way in Istanbul, much longer. I walked around and saw three or four beautiful Greek churches. Unfortunately, after an earthquake, the Metropolitan Church of Athens, the leading church of Greek Orthodoxy (though not of worldwide Orthodoxy; that's St. George's in Istanbul), is covered in ugly scaffolding inside and out. However, a number of smaller churches are little treasures, especially the Church of Kapnikarea and the Church of Agios Eleftherios.

In the courtyard of the Metropolitan Church, though, is a statue of Greek Archbishop Damaskinos erected by the local Jewish population. During the Nazi occupation, he risked formally speaking out against the deportation of Jews to the rumored camps. When the Nazis threatened to put him before a firing squad, he said that he should be hanged instead, in proper Orthodox tradition. He survived.

Nearby to these churches is the wonderful Agia Filotheis St., which is sort of a Greek Orthodox emporium of church supplies. Vestments, icons, censors, lamps, and whatever else you can think of can be purchased on this street. I didn't have the time or money to shop, but I managed to snag a picture of an iconographer at work.

Dipping farther south, I walked into Hadrianopolis, the area outside classical Athens that was refounded by the Emperor Hadrian (much as he refounded Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, but here out of love for the native culture rather than disdain). The centerpieces of this area are the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The former was built to commemorate the completion of the latter; the side facing classical Athens contains an inscription "This is Athens, ancient city of Theseus;" the opposite frieze, facing Hadrianopolis, says "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus." Ouch.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus is now a series of six or so clustered columns and two outlying stragglers; it's rather difficult to get the overall impression. What I think is really significant about it is that alongside the statue of Zeus that served as the object of worship was a statue of Hadrian himself, likewise worshiped as a god on earth. Once again, the imperial cult raises its head; I promise, that post on Jesus, Paul, and Caesar will come.

After winding me past the Lysicrates Monument and Lysicrates Square, and taking me through the quaint white-and-blue streets of the Hellenic islander neighborhood Anafiotika, the guide led me out to the Roman Forum and its Tower of the Winds. The Tower of the Winds is an octagonal, domed structure that has eight reliefs of persons representing the eight winds. The tower itself served as a sundial, waterclock, and astronomical chart.

Finally, walking past Hadrian's Library, I came back to Monasteraki Square. At this point it was already 3pm, and all the archaeological sites were closing down. So I got on the internet for awhile and eventually went up to enjoy the company of other young international travelers on the roof.

The next morning it was time to take in the heavy-lifting: the Agora and the Acropolis. Note, of course, that both of those are common nouns; but they get capitalized here, because Athen's agora is the Agora, and Athen's acropolis is the Acropolis.

The Agora was the central place of political, social, economic, and intellectual activity; only in the cultural and religious fields did the center of focus shift southeast to the Acropolis. The Agora contained places for public debates on philosophy; the bouleterion, the seat of the democratic leadership of Athens; stalls and arcades for merchants; a theater (properly an odeon) for musical performances; the ceremonial parade grounds leading up to the Acropolis; and even temples to the Mother Goddess (the Matroon) and Hephaistos. The Stoa of Attalos has been meticulously reconstructed and now houses the Agora Museum; the Temple of Hephaistos, god of blacksmiths (notice the mercantile theme, as well as the Matroon's agricultural patronage), has been blessedly preserved, much like the Parthenon. All of this made for an excellent two hour stroll through the site.

From there it was a very pleasant fifteen minute walk up the Panathenaic Way up to the Acropolis. I'm not entirely sure what to say about it. The Parthenon, dedicated to Athena the Virgin (virgin = parthenos), patronness of the city, is an unbelievable combination of sheer bulk and masterful architecture. It uses a series of optical illusions to keep its bulk from appearing unbalanced, by widening the columns at the end, having them tilt inward ever so slightly, and adding a gradual curvature to the floor so that the middle sticks up about an inch from the sides. So yes, I mean, it's the Parthenon.

The other structures were just as impressive, though. The Temple of Athena Nike, just to the right as one passes through the Propylaea, is dedicated to the victory of Athena and the Athenians over the Persians, and to ensure her continued support as the Athens fought the Persians in the Peloponnesian War. Note: the Athenians lost. Unfortunately it is currently undergoing extensive renovation; the entire temple is being disassembled, transported elsewhere brick by brick, where each bit will receive a thorough cleaning, and then it will be put back together again on site. At present, it's covered in scaffolding and cranes, and half the temple just isn't there.

There's also the Erechtheion and its Porch of the Caryatids. It occupies the oldest-inhabited site on the Acropolis where the Mycenaeans originally built their palace, and it was dedicated to Athena Polias, the 'Protector of the City.' When the Persians sacked the city and burnt the original Acropolis complex to the ground, Pericles took the statue of Athena Polias- an olive-wood satue dating to 900 BC- in order to save it so that she might, in turn, save them.

Oh, and of course, there's my own personal interest: the Romans decided to plop down their own temple, fittingly to the goddess Roma. Ah, the imperial ideology/theology rears its head again.

A fun note: the Acropolis' east side contains a large Greek flag with a history of its own. When the Nazis entered Athens in April of 1941, they ordered the evzone guard (the same unit at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) to remove the flag. He took the flag down, wrapped it around himself, and jumped to his death. A month later two Greek teenagers scaled the Acropolis, took down the Nazi flag, and raised the Greek flag back up.

Well, my camera ran out of batteries, so I wasted a few hours recharging it, by which time most of the sites were closed. So it was another afternoon on the internet and night on the roof. The good news: 1.80 euro will buy you a delicious gyro or souvlaki pita in Monasteraki Square. Seriously, you can do Europe on a tight budget, no problem, if you stay in dorms at hostels and let the staff point you in the right direction. I wasn't in a dorm here, but I've since switched my plans for Rome.

Anyways, this morning I went to the National Archaeological Museum of Greece, the greatest collection of Greek art and finds anywhere in the world. It was just jaw-dropping; and like the museums in Istanbul, they let you take pictures.

The highlights:

The Archaic-era Kouros figures (note the Egyptian influence), young nude men with a creepy smile:

The classical-era bronze Zeus/Poseidon, in mid-throw of a missing lightning-bolt or trident:

The ancient replica of the Parthenon's statue of Athena, holding Nike in her palm; for reference, the original Nike was six feet tall:

The Hellenistic-era bronze Paris, handing an apple to the winner of the ill-fated beauty contest that kicks off The Iliad:

And the Roman bronze of Caesar Augustus, with its return to the stoicism of classical Athens:

I was also a fan of the creepy bird-people:

There was also this other statue of Aphrodite and a satyr (I think), but I didn't get a look at the label because of a huge crowd of artists on the floor drawing it. If anyone can tell me its significance, much appreciated:

Well, I returned to the Roman Forum and the Library of Hadrian for the afternoon since I hadn't been able to go in before, but my Acropolis ticket happily covered those two sites as well as several others (including the Agora), so I figured I'd give those priority. I never made it to the Byzantine and Christian Museum or to the Acropolis Museum, but I certainly made the best of three days in a city that inexplicably shuts down at 3pm.

This afternoon I headed off by bus for Ancient Corinth, the village ringing around the ancient city's archaeological site about three miles outside the wholly uninteresting modern Corinth. With any luck, I'll be going up the Corinthian acropolis tomorrow morning and seeing the archaeological site and its museum before the 3pm closing. Wish me luck.

Christos anesti! Alithos anesti!