According to ancient myths, Athena, the Goddess of wisdom and war, competed against Poseidon, the God of the Seas, for patronage of the city. Whoever gave the Athenians the better gift would become their patron, and Cecrops, the local king, was appointed as the judge. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up. Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted the latter and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens.
Any temple dedicated to Athena should therefor have a sacred olive tree right next to it.
Visiting Athens means visiting the birthplace of Western civilisation, its philosophy, its architecture, its literature, and the birthplace of democracy. Therefor we first list the most important historical facts in chronological order to explain why Athens can claim that throne.
Following tourists towards the Acropolis, one of Athens’ famous attractions. Acropolis or Citadel or Hilltop Fortified City, are basically synonyms.
The earliest development of the hill site dates from the late Bronze Age around 1200 BC when the Acropolis was the citadel (fortified city). The Trojan war was fought around this time. The platform in the centre, was the location for the palace and later for the first temple of Athena.
As requested by the Athenians, the lawgiver Draco replaced the system of oral law by written law in 621 BC, to be enforced by a court of law. These laws, known as the Draconian Constitution, were part of the earliest development of democracy but they were harsh, and restrictive. This is where the term “Draconian measures” originates from. Most of these laws were later repealed by Solon.
The Athenians, with the help of Sparta, expelled the tyrant ruler Hippias in 510 BC. Hippias fled to Ionia, that was conquered by the Persians from the Greeks. In the ensuing power vacuum in Athens, the lawgiver Cleisthenes, in an attempt to become the ruler, appealed to the demos (the people), making them a new faction in the political arena next to the aristocrats. Under his leadership a fully democratic government was developed in 508 BC.
Athens had by this time become a significant naval power with a large fleet, and helped the rebellion of the Ionian cities against Persian rule. Ionia is an ancient area North of present day Izmir on the West coast of Türkiye. Those Ionian cities were former Greek colonies, but now under Persian rule.
Seeking to secure his empire from further interference of the mainland Greeks the Persian King Darius the Great decided to invade and conquer Athens.
After some initial successes for the Persians, the Persian army was decisively defeated at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. A runner covered the 42 km distance to bring the news of victory to Athens, and the remaining Persian fleet returned to Asia. The 42 km marathon is still a celebrated sports event today.
10 Years later, the Persians, now commanded by Xerxes I, marched on to Athens again, in 480 BC, with one of the largest ancient land armies ever (estimated between 120,000 and 300,000 soldiers and a fleet of 1200 ships).
In response, the Athenians proposed that the allied Greek city states block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae while simultaneously blocking the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.
Lasting for three days, Thermopylae was one of the most prominent battles of the Greco-Persian Wars. The Greeks, commanded by Spartan king Leonidas I, blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could traverse the narrow pass. After the second day, a local resident named Ephialtes revealed to the Persians the existence of a path leading behind the Greek lines. Leonidas, aware that his force was being outflanked by the Persians, dismissed the bulk of the Greek army and remained with a small force to guard their retreat. The Greeks fought to the death suffering 4000 dead, whilst killing 20,000 Persians.
The command of the Greek naval force at Artemisium received the news that the pass at Thermopylae had fallen. Since the Greek defensive strategy required both Thermopylae and Artemisium to be held, the decision was made to withdraw to the island of Salamis, opposite Piraeus Port. The Persians then captured and sacked the evacuated city of Athens.
Meanwhile the Persian fleet endured heavy losses on their way South in two major storms but was still outnumbering the Greek fleet. Luring the Persian navy into the narrow Straits of Salamis, the smaller and nimbler Greek triremes were able to destroy much of the Persian fleet in the ensuing battle.
When the Persian King Xerxes I, who was watching the battle from mount Egaleo, realised his fleet was decimated, he retreated with his army. The following year, the persuing Greeks defeated the remainder of the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea and the Persian navy at Mycale.
The battles of Salamis and Plataea marked a turning point in the course of the Greco-Persian wars. Many scholars believe that a Persian victory would have ended the development of Ancient Greece, and by extension western civilisation, thus making the Battle of Salamis one of the most significant battles in Western history.
After the defeat of the Persians in 478 BC the Delian League was formed under the leadership of Athens. https://www.twobatsea.com/delos-greece/. The following decades became the “Golden Age” for Athens and the league basically developed into the “Athenian Empire”, with its cultural achievements laying the foundations for Western civilisation.
It requires a free and democratic society with people protected by the rule of law and not subject to arbitrary suppression by rulers in Government, for the individual to develop to their fullest potential, to express their opinion, to dream and to imagine, to exchange idea’s and to follow their passion.
Free people advance civilisation. (Too much) Government destroys civilisation.
Theater played an important role. The history of Greek theater started with festivals honouring their gods. Later important historical events were reenacted, the Trojan war with its hero Achilles being a favourite. Playwrights emerged, telling their own stories and genres like drama, comedy and satire developed. This would not have developed if freedom of expression was suppressed.
The actors dressed in costumes, and all wore masks expressing the various emotions they wished to represent.
Historians like Herodotus, who documented the Greco – Persian war and Thucydides, who documented the Peloponnesian war (431 – 404), started writing based on systematic investigation, evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the gods, like Homer used to.
Hippocrates established medicine as a profession, greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine. https://www.twobatsea.com/kos-greece/. The Asclepieion were he studied and the tree under which he taught his pupils can be visited in Kos. Doctors today still take the Hippocratic oath (oath of ethics).
Socrates is credited as the founder of Western philosophy (“love of wisdom”) and among the first moral philosophers (right and wrong).
The Delian League, initially established to protect against the Persians slowly grew into an immense powerful empire. Athens had greatly increased its own power and a number of its allies were reduced to the status of tribute-paying subject states. This tribute was used to fund a powerful fleet and massive public works in Athens, causing resentment.
Friction between Athens and the Peloponnesian states, including Sparta, flared up. Thucydides summarised the situation as: “The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.”
Several major internal wars broke out between the Greek city states; Peloponnesian war (431 – 404), Sicilian war (415 – 413), Corinthian war (395 – 387) to name a few.
These wars took a tremendous tol on lives and treasury and although Greece survived, it never recovered to its former wealth. A symbolic peace treaty was signed by the mayors of modern Athens and Sparta 2,500 years after the war ended, on March 12, 1996.
So far the history of the cradle of Western Civilisation. In Part 2 we will explore the remains of the ancient city, and experience modern day Athens.
Thank you for reading our stories, Liza and Frits