Theatre of Dionysus
Our first stop is the theatre of Dionysus, which is one of the oldest theatres in Athens. Keep your breath: it’s of about 500 years BC. This was the place where they were organizing every four years the big and the small Dionysia, theatre performances in honour of the God Dionysus that was the God of wine, and so here they have presented tragedies, comedies satirical dramas written down by Esxilus, Sophocles Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander. So, people coming to Athens during these festivities, they could be present and see precisely all these beautiful things.The small path leading us to the theatre was full of Choragic Monuments. During the Dionysia festival, all plays had sponsors of the theatre performances that they have paid the money for the actors, for the dresses, for everything. But from all those plays only one voted from the audience as the winner. The sponsor of the winning play had a privilege. What was that? People that they had the responsibility of the theatre performances, when they were the winners so they had the first price, they had this possibility on this street, which was called the street of the Tripus because they had directed on pillars Choragic Monuments Tripus, and that was the prize for the winner of the theatre performance. So, you see that was a specific street, the street of the Tripus with all these Choragic monuments that unfortunately during the century some of them were destroyed and have been replaced by statues. But even these statues, a part of them, were taken by Lord Elgin when he came to Athens. So, if you wish to see them, you need to visit the British Museum in London.The sitting capacity of the theatre was between 15.000 to 17.000 people - you will surely realize that for that time this capacity was impressive - and was located just next to the Odeon of Pericles that was another place with music festivals. So, it’s right to claim that the Odeon of Pericles and the theatre of Dionysus were precisely parts of the Cultural centre of Athens. At the beginning, the seats of the theatre were made out of wood; you see the first theatre performances were done at the ancient marketplace, in the Agora of Athens and after that, they have moved to this theatre here, where we are standing. It is at about 330 BC that all of the seats of the theater were made out of marble.All the Greek Ancient theatres are divided into three different parts, the stage building the orchestra and the place of the spectators. You should know that the theaters of ancient times were open-air, they didn’t have any roof at all, and they were very famous because of their acoustics which was the precise result of very good mathematics and geometry, just like this theater here. Talking about theaters in Greece, there are hundreds and hundreds of theatres, some of them are very famous ones, like the theater of Epidaurus.Now, we are proceeding at the stage building where the actors were changing. There were no actresses in the ancient Greek theater. The men are playing also the female roles with high heels and musk. So that was the place where they were doing all this change and, just in the middle, it is the place of the orchestra, from the Greek word “orhesis”, which means dance because, here, the chorus, from the original Greek word “horos”, was dancing and singing and doing the performances. And just in the middle, it was the thimeli, the place which had the best acoustics, were the actors were standing and everybody could listen to them until the very top*. Don’t forget that we are talking about huge theaters up to 17.000 people capacity, very big constructions, and you see that was a wall which was dividing and just behind this low wall there were some official seats for VIPs of that time, priests, and the local authorities, where they were sitting precisely like today and the rest was for all the other people. We said that at the beginning there were wooden seats and after that they have been made in marble, marble which is coming from one of seven hills of Athens, the hill of Hymettus and that was precisely the place of the marble quarries with very good quality of marble. So, they had two theaters, the theater of Dionysus and the Herodes Atticus. You see, they had created something like a long and narrow construction which was the stoa of Eumenes the 2nd and was precisely a place for bad weather. When it was raining, when the sun was hot, the stoa connected the two theatres, this one and the theatre of Herodes Atticus. The distance between these two theatres was called “peripatus” as if to say walk, where people could cross it and avoid bad weather conditions.
Tour Introduction
Good morning from Athens, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, one of the oldest historical cities in Greece. We are so happy to have you here. I’m Marianna, a professional tourist guide. Thanks for joining me on this walk back in time of the greatness of ancient Athens. A lot will agree with me, the birthplace of western civilization and, for sure, the birthplace of Democracy. See around, visit the place and admire some of the most important monuments of Athens. The major attraction here is Parthenon, the greatest Greek temple ever, but we will also see other monuments and temples.HOW TO USE THIS APPAs you can see from the display window on your audio player, each of the stops on this tour has its own title. You can skip ahead or tailor your itinerary to your own tastes.But navigating on your own can be confusing, and it’s easiest to just follow the tour in the order I’ve laid out. To help you along, I‘ve invited my colleague Mary:– Welcome, Mary!– Hi – or in Greek way “yassas”.Mary will give you directions from one stop to the next. After listening to her directions, you can pause the audio guide, then restart it when you are ready to see the next sight.Now, let’s go to The Acropolis.– Mary, get us started
Historical Overview
- Thank you, Mary!I believe you are ready now to start our tour. Scan your ticket and enter the site.As you climb the hill, let me give you a little historical context so your Acropolis sightseeing will make more sense.We must say first of all that the area of Athens has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Finds proved the presence of humans from almost 4000 BC. Yes, you have listened well. The place has a looong history. The main core of this habitation was the Acropolis and the surrounding area. Little to nothing is known about the pre-Greek inhabitants of the area. With the arrival of the first Greek tribes, however, around 1600 BC, significant construction activity is observed. These Greek tribes, the Mycenaeans, brought to Athens the two basic characteristics of their urban planning: the fortified citadel and the palace. Indeed, the rock of the Acropolis was fortified with a cyclopean wall, while inside the wall a large palace and settlement were built. Unfortunately, we cannot admire any of these as the Persians destroyed them.At this point, you need to know that the monuments of the Acropolis are divided into two different phases, two different periods of time. The first one is before 480 BC and the second phase after that. We say so because, in the meanwhile, between the battle of marathon and another battle of Salamis, the Persians are getting up here, they destroyed and they burn absolutely everything, all the old constructions. We are talking about construction which was done by the Pisistratus, one of the most famous leaders of Athens in the 5th century BC. So, in this way, these first constructions, such as the palace, were burned. So, when the Persians are going away after the last battle of plateia, they were defeated and they go back home, that was the moment they start the reconstruction of the place and Athens is very lucky to have as leader one of the greatest personalities of the political life of that time who was Pericles, an aristocrat, who "surprise" was participating in the democratic party and he is the man behind the story, the power and the glory of the place. So he reconstructed the Acropolis this time in marble, coming from mountain Penteli of Athens, Pentelic marble, they 're using 13.000 tons of marble in order to make all the constructions up here. Just remember that it is no coincidence that the era of Pericles was named and went down in history as the Golden Age.
The Asklepieion of Athens
Time for a quick quiz game. What is the most important thing in our lives? In your life? Money? Glory? I think you will agree that health is the number one. The same is true for the ancient Athenians. Here it is!The Asklepieion of Athens which was built in honour of the gods Asclepius and Hygieia. It was one of several Asklepieions in the ancient Greek world that served as rudimentary hospitals. The Ancient Greeks had a temple for all Gods and Goddesses. As the Acropolis was dedicated to Athena, all the other Gods had their own place and that was the place of the Asklepion. Asclepius was said to have been such a skilled doctor that he could even raise people from the dead. So, stemming from the myth of his great healing powers, pilgrims would flock to temples built in his honor in order to seek spiritual and physical healing.You can see on the marble stone here the information written about the temple and with this way we know today what this temple was. Also, we understand the continuity of the Greek language that means that, during the centuries, it is precisely the same way that we speak that we write and that is something very useful to see, especially that in Greek or in Latin, the word Asklepion to Aesculapius so that is absolutely identifying the monuments.
The Stoa of Eumenes
Moving our way to the next stop, I will insist a little more on the Stoa of Eumenes, a Hellenistic colonnade built, on the South slope of the Acropolis. This long and narrow construction which lay between the Theater od Dionysus and the Oden of Herodes Atticus and I told you about just a few minutes ago. The building was donated to the city of Athens by the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II.- Mary, still here?- Definitely, Marianna! We’re getting very close to the Acropolis. To the left, it is gating the path to the Acropolis and to the right the path to the south and the north klities, at the slop of the Acropolis. If you want to have a better view, some better photos turn right.- Thank you for the orientation, Mary. So, we continue by following the direction to the Acropolis.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Moving on, we will reach the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It is a Hellenistic roman construction of the first and second century after Christ that was made by one of the benefactors of Athens, Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife. It was originally a steep-sloped theatre with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof made of expensive cedar of Lebanon timber. It was one of the highest ones and the sitting capacity here, it is for about 5 to 6.000 spectators. Also, the seats were made out of marble and unfortunately the roof, it is not existing anymore because all these places they have suffered a lot due to many attacks, bombing, because of a lot of different things. And that is a place which is still in use for the summer Athens festivals. So, if it happens and you are in Athens during summer months; you can be here, you can see one of these performances and be charmed by this great feeling to be on the foothills of the Acropolis, to be at the Acropolis at night, maybe under the full moon light, you can be at this theater here and feel the magic.
Hills of Athens
Looking above the Odeon of Herodes you can see straight some of the seven hills of Athens. One of them is called Philopappos and at the top of this hill, the white marble monument, you see? - is a grave of a Syrian king who was called Philopappos and he came in Athens at about 70 AC. He gave lots of money and he was declared as an honorary citizen of Athens. You see Syria was a Greek country because of the decenters of Alexanders the Great. Philopappos never went back to Syria, he came here to study when he was very young, 18 years old and he stayed here for all his life so when he died his last wish was to be buried at a high place. In this way, he could be seeing his beloved city forever from above. The Athenians had chosen this place because they thought it was the best to fulfil his wish.For anyone who wants to go up to the top of Philopappos hill, there is a path that leads there. From there, you can have views of the Acropolis and, also, getting up to the Philopappos hill to the left, there is a cave, and they say that this cave was the prison of Socrates. Even if it’s not for sure, it is written outside “Prison of Socrates”. But the actual prison of Athens was at the marketplace in the Agora, where they found a lot of little vases, which were containing conium, a kind of plant, a flower, which, every year, is flourishing and its liquid is one of the strongest - very very strong poison - so, anyway the place is considered as the prison of Socrates.Be careful please the marble steps, sometimes are very slippery!
Acropolis Hill
So, we follow the first steps of the Acropolis. Acropolis, the top of the city and usually, that is the place which is having fortification walls all around. The Acropolis was including the ancient city of Athens. I mean that Athens was precise until the hills we see down there. The rest is the modern city that was not existing in ancient times. And you must know that the first people came to live up here at about 4000 years BC. It is the earliest population, called pelagic prehistorical tribes, in the Mycenaean period between 1000 to 1600 BC. You see here they had also Cyclopean walls, fortification walls all around. They chose this specific hill, remember what we said, that in Athens there are seven hills. They didn’t go to Philopappos they didn’t go to Lycabettus because here, that is the unique hill which is having sprinkle water. Without water the human being cannot live, so in this way, they chose a place with water, and it is a sprinkle which is still existing in our days, and it is at the northern side just around from where we are now and that was the place where they had all the public water. There were a lot of wheels, and you see this water was being transported to all the houses of Athens at that time. Getting up here, to the Acropolis, you see the main door of the Acropolis, called Belle gates. It is the gate that you see down there with the white door. Belle is the name of a French archaeologist of the 1850s, who found this gate and he cleaned it from the dust and everything which was on. So that is considered to be the as the main entrance of the Acropolis.
Pnyx and March Hill
From this place, we can also see the Pnyx hill. The place which was the main power centre of Athens with the famous bema. From Pnyx, all the great politicians of the ancient time were speaking: Pericles, Themistocles, Aristides, Kemon. Everybody was talking from this specific place, and you see a place just next to Pnyx hill? Well, the yellow construction with the black dorm on the top is the place of the Asteroscopion of Athens, the Planetarium of Athens let’s say, and also the church with the red tiles, dorms that we see a little lower, it is one of the oldest churches of Athens, Saint Marina, a Christian Orthodox church. And also the rock where you see all these people walking up there is called March hill or the rock of Saint Paul. March hill, Arios Pagos, Arios probably took its name because of God Aris, the God of war, or the word Ares which means katares, erinies because that was the place of criminals. When they had criminal cases like somebody has killed someone, so that was the superior court of justice of the Ancient city. They had lots of different courtyards as it was Hēliaia, which was a court for people that they had done something really bad but the highest one, it was Arios Pagos. Pagos in ancient Greek also means rock and that was the place from where Saint Paul was preaching about the new religion, the Christianity. When he came here, he saw all these beautiful constructions and between these temples, he found one which was dedicated to the unknown God, Agnosto Theo. So, when he was talking from the March Hill, he said that I am here to teach you, to make you understand that there is a God, who has created everything and everybody, and he is called Jesus and that is precisely his introduction for Christianity from the hill of the Acropolis.
Propylaea
So, we are just in front of the main entrance of the Acropolis the “Propylaea gate” which means, main door, main entrance. The entrance to the acropolis had to be the grandest gate ever built, nothing less. Ancient visitors would stand here, catching their breath before the final push to the summit. Imagine the psychological impact this awe-inspiring, collonaded entryway to the sacred rock must have had on ancient Athenians. In fact, there were two blocks of constructions, it was the eastern and the western one and they had totally five doors. One of the doors was the main one and the four others were lateral doors, helping the people to go inside. You see all these steps were created in the 6th century BC in order to help the procession of the Panathenaea festivity as they were coming up here. It was a very big procession so in this way thousands of people should get up here. They created these steps in marble, which later on they have been remodelled by a Roman emperor who was called Claudius.
Temple of Athena Nike
Before we climb the stairs, turn your attention to some of the other structures around the staircase. To the right of the Propylaea, look up high, atop of the block wall, to find the Temple of Athena Nike. This is the very first temple, the very first construction of the Acropolis, the temple of the Goddess Athena, Niki, Nike, Victory. It is a brand name today as you see in Greek that precisely means Niki, Nike, Victory. This little temple, one of the smallest temples of the Acropolis, was something like between 5 meters to 6 meters. It was a tiny, very elegant, charming construction with four pillars of ionic style. You see this temple is absolutely restored as all the temples of the Acropolis up here. That’s why we have this difference of marble. That means that the white marble is new while the yellow cream marble is the original material. The temple is not divided into three different rooms as it is usual in a Greek temple. The Temple of Nike has only the main part which is called “sikos” and you must think that inside this part they had first a wooden statue of the goddess Athena which was called "xoanon" that means made out of wood. After some time, it was replaced by a marble statue, which was holding a helmet on the one hand and a pomegranate on the other hand. You see this statue of victory had this difference; it didn’t have any wings and that was made on purpose because if the victory had wings, she was to fly away and never come back. So, in a symbolic way, to keep victory always in Athens, this statue was done without any wings at all. You can compare this statue with the statue of victory which is in the museum of Olympia in Peloponnese in Greece and with the statue of Niki, Nike of Samothrace, at the museum of Louvre in Paris. You will have an idea how all these statues were looking like. Tthis so elegant part of the temple on this side here, it was decorated with a beautiful balustrade that today is exhibited at the new museum of the Acropolis. That means that the architectural pieces were taken away and replaced with copies here, so in this way, they don’t suffer any more according to the weather case and at the same time they have things to show up at the museum. In addition, you must have in your mind that all the temples of the ancient times were painted in beautiful colours in blue, in green, in yellow, so the impression to the eye of the visitor was much better from this one. We have today only the whiteness of the marble. And you see this little temple was located on the top of a misunion bastion. It was part of the fortification walls, of the misunion, the cyclopean walls. That was one of the highest places up there which was overlooking and coming up here, you should remember that this is a place dedicated to the goddess Athena, the protector of the city, that is carrying the victory which stays always with us.
The Pillars
We climbed up the steps and now we are facing the pillars of the main gate of the Acropolis, the Propylaea gate. You see the lateral doors are not in use anymore. They are using only the main, the official door. You must imagine that from here it was passing all the procession of the Panathenaea way. The pillars are a combination of Doric and Ionic style, six Doric columns and six Ionic ones. The white marble is, of course, what is missing and a very big part of this roof that has exploded with Morosini, when the Venuses are attacking 1687 AC. They tried to make a certain restoration and the same thing is for the pillars. You see the pillars are made like this in different pieces of marble, especially because of the seismic country that Greece is, with a lot of earthquakes. So, they are not making just one piece of pillar, but divided in numerous ones, and the pillar is starting a little larger, a little wider at the base, and as it is getting up it is getting slimmer. Why? Because if there is any earthquake starting that is shaking the lower part of the pillar, it will be resisting better the vibration of the earthquake. Also, the pillars have some specific elements that means that we can have more entasis, more force to the pillars at the top and less one at the base. What else? The pillar has a certain inclination, so in this way if we can make the pillars to go as high as 2000 meters height, they touch each other and that is something that will see that at Parthenon. So, if the pillars go all the way up at 2000 meters, they were to touch each and make a super pyramid. We are talking about fantastic geometricians that they worked up here. Approach the Parthenon and find a spot to appreciate this classic view of the Parthenon’s West End.
Parthenon, the West End
The Parthenon is the hill’s showstopper, definitely the finest temple in the ancient world, standing on the highest point of the Acropolis. The temple was constructed in ten years which is nothing for that time, 447 - 437 ΒC. Thousands of people of course had worked up here for the hall of the construction because all these temples are not done at the same time. I mean that one is finishing one is starting and of course, there are so many invasions, so many attacks, so many things up here. Think about the Peloponnesian war, there should be some delays until all these temples were done. And the temple of Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Everything up here was for her, the goddess Athena, Minerva for the Latin people, but this specific one was the temple of Parthenos. Parthenos means in Greek, virgin. The goddess Athena was considered to be a virgin lady, not married, not touched in this way of the edge, because she was the symbol of the city, she must be precisely the one who is protecting the city under her wings. The temple, like all the ancient Greek temples, was divided into three different parts. You see we are facing from up here the western sides of the temple.The Parthenon is big! But what makes it truly outstanding is how harmonious and balanced it looks. Its architects, Ictinus, Callicrates, Agoracritos and Alcamenes, achieved that by employing a number of optical illusions. For example, look at the Parthenon’s steps. Architects know that a long, flat baseline on a building looks to the human eye like it’s sagging. So, to create a building that looked level, the Parthenon’s ancient architects comprehended.Now check out the pillars. The architects knew that parallel columns appeared to bend away from each other. So, they tilted the Parthenon’s columns slightly inward. If you extended the columns way upward, they‘d eventually touch. That titling is one of the reasons why the Parthenon has withstood so many earthquakes as well.It’s amazing to think that all this was planned and implemented in stone so long ago.But... get a little closer, to appreciate the sculptures that once adorned the exterior.
Parthenon, the East End
At this temple of Parthenon, we have an outside colonnade and an inside colonnade which is something very rare for an ancient temple. Also, they had a specific place with this high podium for the statue. I mean that the arrangement of the temple inside it was a little different from the temples that we usually know. So, they had the frieze, they had the pediments, you must also think that the roofs were made out of marble tiles, and they were supported with wooden beams, isn’t it? We are talking about some extremely heavy roofs. So, these great architects precisely found the way how to make a very harmonious construction but also a very sustain one. They have used some of the most famous methods of that time, great Geometry, great Mathematics because without these things you cannot do absolutely anything.Many times, people think that the temples were absolutely in the open air. They must have in their mind that there were doors, there were windows, walls that means that everything was closed, nothing was in the open air as we see that today. The doors were locking, isn’t it? The doors were closed, the windows were closed, it was nothing open air as we see that today. If the pillars are 12 meters heigh, you can realize how high they were. To understand how the temples were looking like, we must think about the temple of Theseus, at the ancient marketplace, the agora of Athens. Fortunately, this temple was not bombed by Morosini, so the greatest part of the original roof and most of the temple survives to this day and this fact gives us the opportunity to see how this temple was looking like. So, the east pediment was at the top and you see up there were we see the holes, they say that they were handing up 300 Persian shields, send here by Alexander the great after his first victory against the Persians, at the battle of Granicus. He saved 300 Persian shields in memory of the 300 Spartans soldiers who died at the battle of the Thermopile. So that is the way how we make the connection between Alexander and the temple at ancient Greece isn’t it? He is respecting the 300 soldiers. We don’t know who and when they have taken away these, but you see the holes?The beautiful frieze of Parthenon was representing, on all sides, the most important festivity of Athens, every 4 years the Panathenaic Festival participating the people of Athens, women, men children, carrying gifts for the goddess Athena, sacrificing of animals. The whole of the religious ritual during these 12 days was for be them able to worship the goddess. And the greater thing about this frieze is that at the end when everything is finishing mortals and immortals are eating and drinking together. They have a religious fist that means that the gods are coming to the level of the human being and the human being is going up to the sky. That is the greatest meaning it is given by this frieze, and the birth of Athena. This part of the frieze is in the museum of the Acropolis today. Also, just around the pillars, on the east pediment, they had represented the birth of the goddess Athena. The goddess Athena is not born from a mother like all the other kids. According to the myth, she’s having a miraculous birth, she’s coming out of Zeus so that is to show precisely that she is something very special, something very different, isn’t it? The moment of the birth of the goddess Athena, it is something you can see at the new museum of Acropolis, was a moment with all the Gods presence and the two beautiful chariots with four horses. The first one was representing sunrise, the other one sunset and that symbolized the exceptional fact of the birth of the goddess Athena that lasted so many hours, all the whole day.This temple has suffered a lot because of different invasions, different attacks. It is, of course, Morosini, that with the very big erosion, which was done here, destroyed the temple and lord Elgin, the English ambassador in Turkey, in Constantinople, who came here and tried to take away some of the most important pieces of marble. So, in this way he has smashed the monuments. They’re using hammers to take pieces down, isn’t it? That is the reason why one of the greatest cultural weapons of Greece, you know UNESCO is talking the last days about these subjects, is the real fact that Elgin had destroyed the unity of the construction, tried to take away some pieces and these pieces belong to the whole thing. But the suffering of these temples is endless. These temples suffered again when Christianity is coming to Athens. You see they have been converted into Christian Orthodox churches, Panagia Athiniotisa. When we have the Latin period, they have attacked Constantinople 1002 or 4 after Christ and all these temples became Catholic churches. So, as you can realize there are so many destructions of these temples, it is a miracle that they can still be seen like this.
Erechtheion, the Caryads
Another beautiful temple here in the Acropolis took its name from a king of Athens who was called…- Help me here Mary.- It was called Erechtheas.- Yes, thank you! Erechtheas and the temple is called Erechtheion and as we are standing here. you see there is a beautiful green olive tree, that is the holly tree of the goddess Athena that is the place where for the very first time, the first tree of the goddess has appeared.The CaryatidsOf course, the most renowned architectural element of this temple is the six statues of the Caryatids, some young girls at the place of pillars that were supporting the exterior roof. These statues are copies of the original ones that are in the museum of the Acropolis one it is in the British Museum in London, taken by Lord Elgin and you see these statues are supporting the whole of the roof. There is a very nice balcony, and these ladies were supporting at the top something like a basket full of flowers, of fruits. They were offering these things to the goddess Athena. They are called Caryatids because of Carya that was a city in Peloponnese which had the reputation that the girls were very nice ones so in this way that was the idea for the beautiful ladies in Athens. When they wanted to say complements, they were saying that you are something like Caryatids isn’t it? That is eternal beauty. This tree was planted in 1917 by the American president Theodore Roosevelt to be the tree peace for the new world as it was also for the ancient one. It is a very important thing that this person, this specific person was here and that the olive tree has through the centuries exactly the same meaning, meaning of peace. Because it was the gift of the goddess Athena and also because it is replanted having exactly the same meaning.
Panorama view
Continue to the far end of Acropolis, we will be standing at the highest level of this hill, just after Parthenon, and here it is a balcony with the best view of Athens that was created by the first queen of Greece Amalia. Amalia was coming up here to enjoy the city from above and you see the views are really fantastic. We can also see a giant Greek flag. The Greek flag’s nine blue-and-white stripes are thought to symbolize the nine syllables of the Greek phrase meaning “Freedom or Death” and relates to the resistance of Greek people against the Nazis.But returning to the outstanding view, look, isn’t it really fantastic? We can see absolutely everything. The Ancient Agora spreads below the Acropolis, and the sprawl of modern Athens whitewashes the surrounding hills. If you look below us to the left it is the old part of Athens Plaka, Anafiotika village which is the very nice part inside Plaka, the Hadrian’s Arch, the temple of Zeus, the first Olympic stadium of Athens of 1896 for the very first modern Olympic Games, and also the National Gardens which were originally royal gardens that they were also been created by Amalia.In the middle of the garden, we can see the beautiful building which is called Zappeion from the Zappas brothers, benefactors of Greece in the 19 century and that is a place of permanent and temporary and exhibitions. The Zappeion building is the place where it was signed the entry of Greece to the European union in 1981, so it is a very important place for modern life in Greece. At the end of the National Gardens, the Athens Hilton Hotel is visible, as well as the constitution square with the Greek parliament, and also the north residential suburbs of Athens. The Lycabettus Hill is also visible from here with the little church of Saint George at the top. There is a cable car, a funicular to go the top with even fantastic views because if the Acropolis is 156 meters above the sea level, you see Lycabettus have double-height, 300 meters so the view is even better. Ιn the background, around us, we can marvel at the mountains of Athens, Parnitha, Penteli, Pentelic marble, Hymettus hill, and also on the right side as we are, looking from here, it is the seaside of Athens, part of the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean sea, the Saronic gulf, the close islands Aegina, Salamis with the famous naval battle of Salamis. It’s really great, isn’t it? So, from wherever you look from the Acropolis you can see different sights, different aspects of Athens and you can also realize the size of the city. Because when somebody is coming for the very first time to Athens, he thinks that Athens is only just the downtown but when you are coming up here you can see precisely how big the city is. All the hills, all the mountains have created this beauty, this unique scenery and of course this wonderful blue sky and the crisp clear light. It is a different thing to be in a country where it is dark, where it is grey, where it is raining and it is a different thing when you have this open-air, this sunshine, this blue, and the white marble which is helping tremendously to be created this atmosphere. The material that they used and was being reflected in the sunrise, and so you see that the colors and the decoration at the temple were looking different from the early sunrise, with the late sunset. I mean that all the scenery was ending up in this way to make the monuments be shown in this much better way.
The End
Thank you for allowing us to take you on this journey back to history. We hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of the Acropolis. If you are doing more sightseeing in Athens, please navigate on this app to find more audio tours or even better, visit our website at www.keytours.gr for joining a live guided tour.Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos
As we are still standing here, I cannot miss telling you that above the theatre, there is a hall on the rock, with two large columns, called the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos. The choragic monument of Thrasyllos is a memorial building erected in 320–319 BC, on the artificial scarp of the south face of the Acropolis of Athens, to commemorate the choragus of Thrasyllos. It is built in the form of a small temple and fills the opening of a large, natural cave. It was one of these places with true pillars and during the Christian times the cave was converted to a little church, dedicated to Panagia Spiliotissa.
West End Sculptures
So, the pillars were being supported from friezes, pediments and at the top, the main pediment that was representing the quarrel between the Goddess Athena and the God Poseidon Neptune, the God of the sea for the possession of the city of Athens. Athena gave as a gift to the inhabitants the olive tree, the symbol of peace, and Poseidon the seawater and the horse but the inhabitants of the city preferred the gift of Athena and the friezes that are visible from this side just below the pediment. They were talking always about this great religious, festivity in honour of the goddess Athena, Panathenaea. You see the Panathenaic way was starting from the ancient marketplace, the agora, and was coming all the way up here and there was a specific ship which was carrying the peplos, the dress of the Goddess Athena. After that, the whole of the people of Athens, all classes, all professions, all ages, from the youngest to the oldest, were participating every four years, up here, to the greatest festivity of the goddess. The celebration was lasting for 12 days in July. They had all kinds of games, they had sports, they had music, they had theatre and you see the winners were receiving a big, large vase which was containing the secret olive oil of the Goddess Athena. So, all these scenes were represented at the frieze, the famous frieze of Parthenon and some pieces today are at the new museum of the Acropolis.
Zappeion
In the middle of the garden, we can see the beautiful building which is called Zappeion from the Zappas brothers, benefactors of Greece in the 19 century and that is a place of permanent and temporary and exhibitions. The Zappeion building is the place where it was signed the entry of Greece to the European union in 1981, so it is very important place for modern life in Greece. At the end of the National Gardens, the Athens Hilton Hotel is visible, as well as the constitution square with the Greek parliament, and also the north residential suburbs of Athens. The Lycabettus hill is also visible from here with the little church of Saint George at the top. There is a cable car, a funicular to go the top with even fantastic views because if the Acropolis is 156 meters above the sea level, you see Lycabettus have double height, 300 meters so the view is even better. Ιn the background, around us, we can marvel at the mountains of Athens, Parnitha, Penteli, Pentelic marble, Hymettus hill, and also on the right side as we are, looking from here, it is the sea side of Athens, part of the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean sea, the Saronic golf, the close islands Aegina, Salamis with the famous naval battle of Salamis. It’s really great, isn’t it? So, from wherever you look from the Acropolis you can see different sights, different aspects of Athens and you can also realize the size of the city. Because when somebody is coming for the very first time to Athens, he thinks that Athens is only just the downtown but when you are coming up here you can see precisely how big the city is. All the hills, all the mountains have created this beauty, this unique scenery and of course this wonderful blue sky and the crisp clear light. It is a different thing to be in a country where it is dark, where it is grey, where it is raining and it is a different thing when you have this open-air, this sunshine, this blue, and the white marble which is helping tremendously to be created this atmosphere. The material that they used and was being reflected in the sunrise, and so you see that the colors and the decoration at the temple were looking different from the early sunrise, with the late sunset. I mean that all the scenery was ending up in this way to make the monuments be shown in this much better way.
The Monument of Agrippa
Let’s say that what we see today is of the Roman times. And at the entrance of the Propylae gate, where we see the big base, it was standing the statue of Agrippa. Agrippa was the son in law of the Roman emperor Augustus. The very first statue up there was of Eumenes, but it was replaced by the latest statue and there is an inscription about this. So, people that they get into the Acropolis, they precisely follow this way, and before they pass through the main door, they can see from closer the temple which is above us. The very first temple of the Acropolis, the temple of the goddess Athena, Niki, Nike, Victory.
The statue of Athena
Inside this temple, they had one of the most fantastic statues ever done by human hands as here they were working great artists such as Fidias, Ictinus, Kallikrates, MnesiKles. Fidias is the best of the best and he was working to make this big statue of the goddess Athena, which was 13 and a half meters in height. It was almost touching the roof. So tall it was! There was a podium that was supporting this statue, the goddess Athena, and it was made out of golds the nude parts. The feet and the hands were covered with ivory. She was wearing a helmet with a sphynx with gryphons on her breast. With Erechtheas or the Erichthonios, the serpent which is coming out of the ground Οικουρος Οφις that was called, so in this way that was one of the most beautiful statuses ever made. That was here from the 5th century BC until the 5th century AC when it was taken from here by the Byzantine emperor Constantine the great to decorate his capital city Constantinople where the statue was pressed. I don’t know how, who and so on, it was never found. It remains a mystery, lost in the depths of history. So, people that were coming here, we're coming first to worship this statue, the cult statue of Athena.When you reach the East End of the Parthenon, find a place with a good view of the pediment over the door.
Erechtheion, the East End
But don't be deceived. That was not the entrance of the temple. The entrance is to the right where you see the pillars. They are 6 lovely ionic pillars that was the main entrance, and inside they had two different rooms. The first room was the place where they were worshipping all divinities of Athens, Theseus, Ifestus, Poseidon and the second room it was full of water, sea water. It was called Frea, or Erechthis Thalassa, Erechthis sea and that was precisely the water which was given by the God Poseidon. The Goddess Athena has given the olive tree while the god Poseidon the seawater. So, in this way, they are keeping both gifts, but Athenians preferred the olive tree. And that is showing the pacific character of the city. It is not Sparta here, it is a city which is believing very much to civilization, to the civilized solution of problems, that’s why they chose the olive tree, the symbol of peace. They had, also, some old places, called Temenos and that was the Temenos of Pandrosos. We are talking about very old divinities of Athens. Here, they were worshipping their ancestors at the beginning of their city. The origins, the old families, everything was here. If Parthenon was the place of worship of the goddess, where they had all the money of the city, we could say like a bank, the temple of Erechtheion was the real place of Athens where all the natural Athenians were connected. So, people can go around, isn’t it? here are steps down in this way, you can go around, you can enjoy the construction.You see there were steps down, so people could get to the other side to precisely reach the place of the Erechthis sea and also the holly olive tree. They had also the grave of Erechtheus and the grave of Kekrops. They had all these old ancestors of Athens incorporated to the same construction.
