01. Athens is the key point of travel for most tourists to Greece. It holds your breath for a moment as you tread the ground of the famous: Solon, Plato, Socrates, Pericles, Philip II, Alexander and later Paul of Tarsus.
02. Athens is situated five miles (eight km) from the Aegean Sea on the peninsula of Attica. It held the ideal location for uniting the city states of the south with those of the north and Macedonia.
03. Athens is a port city. Ships from all over the Mediterranean Sea came to the port, bringing merchandise, sailors and ideas from abroad.
04. Athens was also a city where the defense of its walls, and its port, was fundamental to its survival.
05. The storms of the Mediterranean could lash havoc upon the small ships of old. Many treasures have been found; many more lie waiting to be discovered.
06. Free Photos. All my pictures may be used for educational or tourism purposes. Please give a good portion of your profits to children in the developing world. Say, "With permission by David Phillips." Photos from other web sites in some of my galleries are used with permission.
07. Life began in Athens and grew due to its favourable agrarian climate. as early as 4,000 B.C. the Neolithic Age saw settled life in villages and small communities.
08. Stories of the heroes of old became exaggerated over time with the impact that legends acquired greater relevancy as they were told by the next generations. Some of these became plays in the theatres of the Greek world.
09. By 1,050 B.C. the Mycenaean culture had developed commerce and arts in Athens. Solon was a wealthy aristocrat who argued that all the aristocrats should have a say in city government. He used his poetry in 590 B.C. to promote his ideas, giving rise to early forms of dramatization.
10. For centuries poets, orators and actors came to Mars Hill, or the Areopagus, overlooking the small valley that lies under the Acropolis. It was here in 54 A.D. that Paul proclaimed Jesus resurrected from the dead. Some laughed at his ideas; others accepted them for themselves.
11. Early forms of democracy gained ground in Athens as patriotism and "care for the common good" became part of the city's culture. Under Cleisthenes, in about 510 B.C. the process of democratization was accepted for the city. The Agora became the main center for government.
12. The sense of common good led to a number of positive results. Specialized functions flourished with the result that great buildings were constructed. The Propylaea was a gateway that gave entrance to the other buildings in Athens' greatest moment of glory.
13. On the lower ground were found temples dedicated to various gods. Greek architecture blossomed with temples dedicated to Athena Nike, the Erechtheum and the Parthenon.
14. Athens demonstrated its power of culture with the rise of learning, art, sculpture, philosophy, rhetoric, drama and science. (See my Gallery on Greek Culture - Part 1 for its contribution to Western thought.)
15. A period of about 400 years, from 12th Century to 8th Century B.C. is known as the Dark Ages. However, the explosion of philosophy and thought from 600 B.C. to about 350 B.C. is known as the Golden Age.
16. The radical democratization of Athens was hastened by Pericles (450 - 429 B.C.) after the invasion of Persia. The Persians were defeated first at Marathon in 490 B.C., and then in 480 B.C. under Xerxes. City States had to join together to evict the invader.
17. The sense of unity between the city states of Greece, brought about by the defeat of the Persians, gave rise to a new sense of well-being and industry. Huge buildings were built between 445 - 425 B.C. in a sudden, massive burst of glory.
18. The architectural foundation was laid for the rise of Greek intellectual thought, which was to reach its height some 50 or 60 years later.
19. Athens still had no concept of a foreign policy for it was too focused on itself. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was a 27 year struggle between the people of Sparta and those of Athens. Some estimates place the number of dead as high as 30%.
20. War brought out the imagination of people, both in terms of strategy as well as in the development of new kinds of tools, arms, and defensive measures.
21. Sparta, with its superior military, won the war, but imposed lenient terms against Athens. Socrates, a major voice in the recovery of Athens, established new standards for dialogue on justice, virtue and courage. He was indicted and executed in the state prison, here, in 399 B.C..
22. Socrates value as a teacher and philosopher cannot be over estimated.
23. Three of the most famous thinkers of ancient Greece: Socrates, then his star pupil, Plato. Plato set up an academy for orderly study for his students and Aristotle was Plato's best student.
24. Aristotle in turn founded the Lyceum to teach a much wider scope of thought. His "school" included biology, science, rhetoric and ethics. The word Lyceum, in its many variations, now means "High School" in many European countries.
25. Socrates met his end for having corrupted the young with his speeches. He was forced to take his own life. Democracy still did not have a modern interpretation in Greece in 399 B.C.
26. The Hephaisteion Temple was built during the period of The Glory of Greece, that is about 430 B.C. It is the best-preserved building in the Agora. Some of these (almost) 2,500 year-old buildings are now under restoration.
27. A sense of order, beauty, serenity, majesty and massive self-confidence is silently taken in by the visitor who leans his / her head back to examine classical architecture. The meaning of worship of gods and goddesses hardly enters the modern conscience, though.
28. The Ancient Agora was excavated by the American School of Classical Studies, starting in the 1930's. Since then much of the area has been made known to millions of visitors each year.
29. Much about the daily life of the Greeks has been discovered. (Picture from a painting at the Royal Ontario Museum)
30. The Stoa of Attalos is a majestic building rebuilt on the ancient foundations, completed in 1956, through the Rockefeller Foundation. It is an impressive roofed arcade founded by King Attalos of Pergamon (Turkey), who ruled from 159 - 138 B.C.
31. Inside the Stoa is an impressive museum of exhibits showing the diversity and sophistication of ancient peoples. Laws, stone lots, water clocks, voting tablets, toys, ovens, sandals, vases, oil flasks statues and art are all displayed in this stoa. You can easily take an hour, or more.
32. The 2004 Olympic games once again brought home the values of Ancient peoples, this time to the peoples of the world, as they descended upon the (heavily indebted) city of Athens.
33. While the games brought out the best in the athletes of the time, the daily life of the population continued relatively unchanged from one year to the next.
34. While sports capture the attention of the young, the fit and the beautiful, classical writings of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, among others, grip classical scholars.
35. Athens days of glory were to come to an end around 340 B.C. Philip II of Macedonia, a "barbarian" from the north, conquered Athens and the other cities of the south. But, Greek language and customs, confined to the south, were about to be spread abroad to the whole known world.
36. Alexander the Great, during his formative years, studied Greek ideas and was captivated by the culture of the south. When he invaded Persia, Egypt and the East in 334 B.C. he determined to take with him the Greek culture. Athens' influence was set to spread as never before.
37. The values of ancient Greece can be seen in the ideals of dignity and serenity. The chiton, was the under-garment worn by all people. Over that was worn the himation, a mantle dyed in various colors worn in a variety of styles, over the shoulder, as a cape, as a hood, across the upper body.
38. Sculptors such as Pheidias and Myron captured the expressions of deep human emotion, often transferring these to the gods of their imaginations. These myths of Greece gave rise to Greek tragedy and drama. People would travel a long way to see the dramas in theaters.
39. It was to this location, Mars Hill, or Areopagus, that Paul, the Apostle, and Silas, his helper, came in 54 A.D. The name means "Rock of Ares", another name for Athens. There was an altar to the "Unknown God" there, and Paul used this as a point of contact to preach his message.
40. Many of Paul's letters include sports terms, familiar to his audience. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training." I Cor 9:24.
41. Today a massive re-building project is under way. Using contemporary computer generated images, the restorations of 2007, or later, will be much more accurate than previous attempts.
42. The most recent Olympic Games were held in Athens in 2004 in honor of the long history of sport that began in ancient Greece. Games were held in Greece every four years. This is a universal value now shared by all nations in the world.
43. "I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." I Cor 9:26.
