Athens Thursday 6th March

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What a marathon of visiting archaeological sites! Today was free day to commemorate the death of Melina Merkouri so we made the most of it. Melina Merkouri was a singer, actor and politician. She was Greece’s first female Minister of Culture and asked Britain to give back the Parthenon Marbles. She died in 1994.

Our first stop was at Keramikos, the cemetery from 12^th C BC to Roman times. It was a large, treed and grassed site, which had included residential and public areas at some times and broad avenues lined with funerary sculptures. One impressive sculpture shows two sisters who have died and are gazing out into the middle distance, their minds already on a different place. A poignant one shows a grandmother cradling a grandchild and the verse says how she will miss the child she loved so much. Another, for a bachelor treasurer, is an enormous well endowed bull – what message were his relatives giving about his activities? In 307 BC Demetrius Phalereas banned showy statuary for funeral purposes so people had to be content with a few verses and a bit of relief work on a stone. This was because he was attempting a balancing act between all his subjects while maintaining his own position, and the nobles had become a bit too powerful and influential. One interesting find was a mass grave for about 150 people, with everyone very close and in many layers. The time it had been dated at either (430 or 427 BC corresponded with some writing about the plagues that had hit Athens. The author described the deaths of many doctors as they tried to treat the mystery disease, and people crawling to the fountains with a raging thirst, how bodies were lying in the streets and how some people were even profaning the temples by seeking refuge and then being ill there. We visited the excellent museum and saw the development in funerary vases and ornaments from fairly crude through a geometric and simple figure drawing stage to the sophistication of the figures and designs in the Classical Era. It was just the right atmosphere to wander around in, imagining other times, pausing beneath olive trees to examine the flowers in the grass and to try to get a sense of how long ago everything was.

Next stop was the Acropolis, which we remembered wandering through in January of 1975. Then, we had sauntered through the Parthenon, as if we were ancient Greeks having important philosophical discussions. Now there are guiding ropes that prevent close contact and scaffolding and construction noise everywhere. In 2000 it was decided to dismantle the Parthenon because of inappropriate fix ups in the past and serious deterioration. Acid rain is also a major problem. The whole temple of Nike has been disassembled and not yet reconstructed. There was considerable contention because some people wanted to put it somewhere else and others want it returned to its original site. The museum is also in the process of being moved. I remembered being so impressed by the statues, even if the English had taken some, but there seem to be less now. Not that the Acropolis wasn’t impressive – the size and scale and the site on top of a rugged hill – but the experience for us was affected by the site works all around.

We were entertained by the sight of an elderly man dressed in traditional Greek costume who kept hiding in the bushes, and seemingly shooing tourists away. He wore a white pleated skirt, a white shirt with full sleeves, a red embroidered jerkin, a velvet hat with a feather in it, white tights and black shoes with pompoms. It was ridiculous for him to imagine that he could become invisible in that outfit in some sparse shrubbery. Every now and then he would pop out and say “One Euro,” meaning that you could have a photo with him for that price. Another couple were selling postcards and it was interesting to see all three of them disappear into the bushes on the run just before two police people came along.

Keith went off to do an errand, leaving me to wander down to the Temple of Hephaestus at the Roman Agora. The Roman Agora was a very large site with many civil and commercial buildings and meeting places. It was the spot to hang out, with Socrates declaiming and St Paul trying to explain his new ideas to the populace, and opportunities for a spot of shopping as well. Originally the Temple of Hephaestus was in the metal working area, which makes sense since Hephaestus was the patron of those arts.

This is the best preserved temple of its type, and sits on a plateau surrounded by gardens, overlooking the other buildings in the Agora. It is much more impressive than the Parthenon to me, even though it is on a much smaller scale. Sitting down to relax while I waited for Keith, I met a very interesting man called Adel, who lives in Vancouver. He was a priest on vacation, soon to travel to Rome to the ordination by the Pope of his former teacher as a bishop. Of Egyptian origin, his father had studied law in Germany, where Adel was born, and then the family had migrated to Canada. He was fascinating to talk to because he had been to school in Egypt for a year, spoke German, English and Arabic, and had visited Egypt last year. He came from the minority of Egyptian Catholics and so he was able to talk about the impact of religion from that viewpoint. When his glasses broke last year in Egypt, he was careful to choose a Christian Optometrist business and was delighted that the eye doctor he was sent to was a Catholic. Phone calls were made to ensure that he, a Catholic priest, would receive the very best of service. He said that people always seek the services of doctors, lawyers, accountants etc. from the same religious background. He also spoke of discrimination and acts of violence against Christians. He was a keen photographer who carried a tripod and took great care with angles and lighting. He was full of praise for the way the Greeks cared for their monuments and condemned the way the Egyptians are more casual and how a payment to a guard means that you can break whatever rules there are. In contrast, we had seen a tourist at the Acropolis who stepped over a guide rope to have a photo taken near a pillar. Two guards descended on him immediately and ordered him back to the path.

When Keith returned we set off to explore the rest of the Agora and the charming 10thCentury Church of the Holy Apostles, built to commemorate St Paul’s time of teaching in the area. There is an enormous, fully reconstructed Stoa of Attalos with a fine display of some of the items found on the site during archaeological excavations. A stoa is a public building with chambers on the ground floor and a second floor for expensive shops and businesses above. It is now just marble but would have been originally painted red and blue. This particular stoa was a gift from King Attalos. Emperors and kings were responsible for many public buildings and improvements, either by sponsoring them themselves or by announcing that they intended to visit, causing a flurry of building so that the populace could show their appreciation by dedicating the new building to the VIP. Hadrian was the best for this – there is Hadrian’s this and that everywhere with gateways seeming to be the most popular option and possibly the cheapest. The remains of other stoas can be seen at the ancient agora – the original multi- storey shopping centres.

After these three major sites, we visited others. The Roman Agora and the Temple of the Winds gave us a change to Roman influence.

We also had a view of the excellent public systems such as the latrines, including a stone toilet seat over a channel of water leading to the city drains.

Next was Hadrian’s Library which was built in the 2nd Century AD and was a cultural centre for music and the dramatic arts as well as for literature. We found that it is important to read the information signs because without them, it is hard to distinguish what you are looking at. Many of the sites have some columns, some walls and some foundations of buildings. It is only when you imagine them as they were, being used by people not very different to today’s Greeks, that it all comes together for us. Keith says that he imagines the architecture, and I imagine the lifestyle with the buildings as the backdrop. All these sites are within easy walking distance and generally between streets, shops and houses. Every time a hole is dug something new is found and, it is clear by the arrangement of columns, that many areas have only been nibbled at, and that other treasures must lie beneath modern Athens. Finally, since time beat us, we had to be content with a view of the gigantic Temple of Zeus through the bars of the fence.

We wandered home through the gardens, surprised to find a pond of dead and bloated frogs in an areas so well tended, and, once again, realised that we had missed out on the Botanical Museum!

The pedestrian promenades around Athens are fantastic for people walking. They are quiet and peaceful and there's only one problem - motorbikes are apparently allowed to use them, which they do in large numbers.

A view over Athens. Most buildings are white, many with flat rooves.