Walking from the Acropolis to the Agora we passed the St. Marina church (Byzantine style building to the right) on the Hill of the Nymphs. Saint Marina is a young woman who is also known as the Vanquisher of Demons. She refused to mary a man who wanted her as a bride. He then sent a demon to devour her in her prison cell, but she demolished it using a hammer.
The church is built on the grounds of a much smaller church dedicated to the same saint; the main altar and several icons came from that original church. The surprise however is an ancient grotto in the SE corner of the church. The grotto dates back to the pre-Christian era when it was used as a place of worship. In the present day it is used for baptisms. Interestingly, Marina is also the saint of pregnant women and children.
The Athenian Agora, the birthplace of Democracy, was a large open square NW at the foot of Acropolis hill and was the focal point of public life. Here commercial transactions, political gatherings and elections, trials, religious processions, military exercises and athletic competitions, social gatherings and philosophy lessons took place.
The area was gradually surrounded by administrative buildings to serve the democratic procedures: the Bouleuterion (Council House), where members of the Council (boule) held their meetings, the Tholos, seat of the councillors of the tribe that had the executive power, the Metroon (State Archives) and the South Stoa, seat of the Councillors’ committees. The Monument of the Eponymous Heroes, a symbol of the 10 Athenian tribes, was the public notice board.
Another interesting piece is the kleroterion, a device used during the period of democracy to select citizens to the boule, to most state offices, to the legislature, and to court juries.
A slab of stone was incised with rows of slots. Citizens’ tokens—bottom left—were placed randomly in the slots so that every member of each of the tribes of Athens had their tokens placed in the same column. There was a pipe attached to the stone which could then be fed dice that were coloured differently and could be released individually. When a dice was released, a complete row of tokens (so, one citizen from each of the tribes) was either selected, or discarded. This process continued until the requisite number of citizens was selected.
The round bronze tokens to the right were juror’s ballots.
The Temple of Hephaestus is dedicated to the patron god of metal working, craftsmanship, and fire. It remains standing largely intact today. There were numerous potters’ workshops and metal-working shops in the vicinity of this temple.
From the 7th century until 1834, the building served as the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George Akamates. After the Greek war of Independence in 1834, the first King of Greece, Otto I, was officially welcomed here. Otto ordered the building to be used as a museum, in which capacity it remained until 1934, when it reverted to its status of an ancient monument.
The buildings in the Agora were gradually destroyed from 267 AD onwards, by the invading Germanic tribes (Heruls, Visigoths, Slavs). Greece was part of the Roman empire at the time, that began to lose power after Roman Emperor Valerian was captured by the Persians in 260 AD. It was the first time ever that a Roman Emperor got captured, causing chock and instability in the empire, and emboldening its adversaries. Rome was no longer unassailable.
While walking from the Agora towards Socrates’ prison on Philopappos hill we passed numerous churches in the busy shopping streets of the Monastiraki district. Built in 1050 AD and once the katholikon of a monastery the Panagia Kapnikarea is one of the oldest.
Socrates (470–399 BC) was a philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy. The Socratic method searches for general commonly held truths that shape thought and scrutinizes them to determine their consistency with other beliefs. The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help a person discover their beliefs about some topic or definition. Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the accounts of his students Plato and Xenophon.
Socrates attracted great interest from the Athenian public and especially the Athenian youth. He was notoriously ugly, having a flat turned-up nose, bulging eyes and a large belly. Socrates did not seek sex from his disciples, as was a common and accepted practise between older and younger men in Athens. He was a polarizing figure in Athenian society and died in Athens in 399 BC after a politically motivated trial for “disrespect for the gods” and “the corruption of the youth”. He spent his last day in prison among friends and followers who offered him a route to escape, which he refused. He died in accordance with his sentence, after drinking poison hemlock
Entrance of the very modern Acropolis Museum. Relevant photo’s are already incorporated in the blog.
We had dinner on the leafy terras behind the Lysikrates’ monument, built by a wealthy citizen, to commemorate a music contest. The frieze decorating the monument depicts the adventures of the god Dionysus and some pirates, whom he turned into dolphins.
Looking from Syntagma square towards the old Royal Pallas where currently the Hellenic parliament is seated. There was a small peaceful pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia protest on the stairs in front of the palace. Frits spoke to one of the protesters and got the impression that they (at least that individual) doesn’t grasp of what is really going on. Better leave them in their own bubble.
We were just in time to witness the Change of Guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier in front of the old palace. Click on the video below. We sped up the video in places. The whole ceremony took 10 minutes.
The stadium is built in 330 BC in a natural ravine between the two hills. It hosted the Pan-athena-ic Games, a religious and athletic festival celebrated every four years in honour of the goddess Athena. After Hellenistic festivals and bloody spectacles were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I in the late 4th century, the stadium was abandoned and fell into ruin. After being refurbished, it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and is in use ever since. It is the only 50,000 seat capacity stadium in the world, built entirely out of marble.
Thank you again for reading our blog. We hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. We definitely enjoy writing it.
We are slowly taking our floating home further West and are now headed to the Corinth Canal.
Warm regards; Liza and Frits