PapaMarshall

Day 8 – 1/19/2020 – Around Athens

Up, breakfast, NOT on the bus. Rather we walked a few blocks up to the presidential residence to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. This being Sunday they are decked out in the distinctively Greek uniform.

They trooped in but (they told us afterwards) one of the outgoing guards was ill and not able to complete their normal fancy routine so they just did a simple swap and marched off.

Next we boarded the bus for a driving tour of the city.

We passed the university. Of course they would know how to build a Greek looking building.
We stopped at the Panathenaic stadium. This Roman era stadium was excavated in the 19th century and was the site of the first Olympic Games in the modern era (1896). Now for each olympics the torch is brought from Mt. Olympus to this stadium where it is presented to the mayor of the host city – beginning the torch relay.

The next stop was the Agora – the main gathering place of ancient Athens.

The location was important because of springs that provided water. This fish and trident symbolized that the spring was dedicated to Poseidon.
At one end of the grounds an ancient road led up to the Acropolis.
Cheryl is pointing out a stone with a significant wheel rut.
Us in the front, the Acropolis on our left (your right), the Stoa on our right (your left).
One restored building is a Stoa (one of four that were originally there.)
A stoa has a covered open hallway and a set of closed rooms on one side. Merchants would set up shop in the rooms and display their wares out in the hallway.

Because of the structure and function of the building this is where people would gather and discuss. Incidentally the word Stoic (as in the group of philosophers) comes from Stoa – where they met.

Along the porch they had displays of ancient artifacts. This is part of a piece dedicated to a victory In Anthippasia in the early 4th c BC.

They’re was also a small museum with some significant finds from the Agora.

This “tribute list” is a listing of individual Greek city-states that contributed to the ‘Delian league’. The league was established after the Persian war as a mutual defense organization. The stone is significant because people stopped sending tribute to the list when it became known that Athens was using league funds to improve the Acropolis.
Ancient potty seat.
‘Voting discs;’ The Athenians had a strange practice called ostracizing. Every year they would vote to expel someone from the city for 10 years. People would cast their votes on pottery shards with names scratched on them. One common type of shard was the base of a bowl. An interesting thing about this display is that most of the votes are to ostracize the hero of the Persian war. Also, there are 4 separate ‘hands’ in the penmanship of multiple discs – meaning that four people stuffed the ballot box presumably because the hero was a threat to powerful families.
These black glazed medicine bottles were the type that would have been used to hold poison – such as hemlock for Socrates.
Speaking of Socrates, this is likely the jail where he was kept before his execution.

After a bit more tromping around the Agora it was time for lunch. Then we boarded the bus for the drive down to Cape Sounion on the Saronic Gulf.

There we viewed the temple of Poseidon on a bluff overlooking the Aegean Sea.

It was cold and the wind was blowing so we spent just enough time to look at the architecture (interesting stuff) and the defensive advantages of the site and take a few pictures before fortifying ourselves with hot chocolate and getting back on the bus.

She’s smiling but I still got the message – Take the Damn picture and let’s get OUT OF HERE!
But the setting is stunning!
And the sunset was amazing.

Tomorrow we load up and head out. We’ll do Corinth on our way to Nafplion.

Till then,

R

4 Comments

  1. Hey…I see Cheryl is liturgist on Sunday…I can do it for her, if she would like me to!

    Biilie

  2. Hey…I see Cheryl is liturgist on Sunday…I can do it for her, if she would like me to!

    Billie

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