|
Information on the Acropolis and Greek Architecture.
Acropolis and Greek Architecture
Greece is the proud possessor of two rich architectural inheritances. The one was bequeathed to her by the Mycenaean builders, the other by later Greek or Hellenic builders. Cretan Architecture The Mycenaean builders were at work in the land more than three thousand years ago in the Wonder Age. They were sons of a rich, highly cultured, and mighty kingdom, of which the chief towns were Mycenae, Argos, and Tiryns, in the district between the Gulfs of Corinth and Nauplia. Recently it has been discovered that this old Mycenaean kingdom was an offshoot of a much older, more powerful, and more highly cultured nation, whose headquarters were the island of Crete. The Cretans were highly skilled in the art of building. As long as four, or maybe five, thousand years ago they were erecting well-planned, vast, and magnificent palaces. If ever you go to Crete, you will be able to see the ruins of these marvellous palaces, and how your heart will beat with excitement as you stand before one of them ! It is believed to be the Palace of Minos, the very place where he kept the monster Minotaur in the Labyrinth. The Cretan architects, builders, and decorators must have had extraordinary intelligence, stupendous know ledge, vivid imagination, and wondrous skill. In the vast areas of buildings that have recently been unearthed at Phsestos and Knossos spacious open courts are ap proached by unrivalled flights of steps ; great halls open ing out of these courts are entered through magnificent pillared porches ; corridors branch off in every direction, leading to living-rooms, state apartments, and sacred precincts ; staircases lead to upper stories ; magazines, long and wide galleries for the storage of supplies and the safe deposit of valuables, are guarded by massive walls ; there is a thoroughly scientific drainage system ; there are frescoes and ornamental stonework. And still I have not told you about half the wonders of these palaces that carry us back four thousand years or more, and challenge us to produce anything in modern architec ture that can outrival them. Now, when I tell you about the wonderful things done in Greece by the Mycenaean builders, you will believe what would sound impossible if you did not know they were the des cendants of a great building family. In making walls and framing openings the Mycenaeans used gigantic stone blocks, which look as though they must have been rent asunder from the mountains by Titanic hands, borne to the scene of building operations on Titanic shoulders, and piled on high or hoisted aloft by Titanic arms to take their place in a Titanic abode. Famous among the existing remains of their work is the Lion Gate at Mycenae, a most wonder-striking feat, by which three giant stones are made to outline an entrance-space. Two of the stones, each lo-ifeet high, stand up as posts, and balanced on the top of them is a monster lintel 16 feet long, 8 feet broad, and more than 3 feet thick in the middle. Above is a triangular block, bearing the sculptured likeness of two weird-looking beasts. These are the lions rampant after which the gate is named. The Lion Gateway was the principal entrance to the Acropolis of Mycenae. The Mycenaeans were also the designers and makers of the " beehive ' tombs that are found at Mycenae and in other parts of Greece. These tombs are cut out of and constructed within a hill, and their picturesque shape is well described by the name that has been given them. They look exactly like the inside of a beehive might if it were scooped out of a piece of rock, only they are so many times bigger that you must imagine them as enormous underground rooms. The finest of the bee hive tombs yet discovered is the one at Mycenae, which is sometimes called the " Tomb of Agamemnon," some times the "Treasury of Atreus." : I will make one more attempt to give you the very faintest idea of the Brobdingnagian methods of these early builders in Greece. This time I will ask you to try to grasp a few facts about one of their citadels. The citadel of Tiryns was 980 feet long, and about 330 feet broad. It was terraced into upper and lower divisions, and on the former stood a vast palace. The whole fortress was surrounded by a massive wall, made up for the most part of blocks of stone from 6 feet to 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. These blocks were piled on the top of each other, and when they did not exactly fit the spaces between were filled up with smaller stones. The height of this encircling wall is said to have been 65 feet, and its average thickness 26 feet. If you can form the very least idea of size and weight from figures, you will not be at all surprised to hear that in the days not long ago, when ancient Crete was buried deep, and history had nothing to tell about the ancestors of the Mycenaeans, people were inclined to believe that the first builders in Greece belonged to an extraordinary race of giants. Their work was then, and is still, often called by the distinguishing name " Cyclopean,' 1 after the fairy-tale giants who tore asunder from the hills mighty rocks, and flung their gigantic missiles high o'er the waves at Ulysses in an endeavour to wreck that hero's ship during one of the most perilous of all his exciting adventures. Hellenic Architecture The second great architectural inheritance of Greece is the work of the Hellenes, men who won for themselves for all time a place of honour among the world's master builders. These are the men who built the Parthenon, where we are now talking together about them, and who glorified not only Athens, but all mainland Greece, her islands, and her colonies, with magnificent temples, great market-places with colonnaded promenades, vast arenas for athletic sports, and open-air theatres embosomed in a hill-side, with tier upon tier of seats sweeping up and around in majestic semicircular array. Since the Hellenic builders are commonly known as the Greek builders, we will call them by that name. It is thought that the Greek builders were descended in some way from the Mycenaeans. There are good reasons for this belief, but at present there are only a few missing links in the chain of evidence by which it is hoped some day to link up the work of Cretan, Mycenaean, and Greek builders into a continuous story. You will be quite justified, therefore, in thinking that the Greeks learned something about building from earlier artists and craftsmen who worked in their country. You may be certain that they learned various things from more distant neighbours, for as Greece was brought into close contact with the East they had many opportunities of studying the highly developed science and art of such great Oriental builders as the Assyrians and Egyptians. But above all things you may be positive that the build ing instinct was inborn in the Greeks, that it was one of Nature's greatest gifts to the nation ; for the Greek builders were artists. What they saw they did not merely copy, what they learned they did not just repeat. Their work may suggest that they were students in this or that school, but it will always make you feel that they were ideal students, to whom education was but a founda tion for originality. It may remind you of such and such an older building which may have inspired beautiful Greek forms and decorative designs, but you will always feel in these the warm, vital breath of the creator, never see the cold, lifeless hand of the copyist. And the more you see of the work of these master-builders, the more conscious you will be that the main sources of their in spiration were their own magnificent country, their own religion, their own national spirit. Greek Architecture The Doric Ionic Corinthian Orders The Greeks built in three distinct styles, which are always called " Orders". These three Greek Orders are named Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Doric Order is the oldest. The simplest way I can help you to recognize it is to tell you that it is very plain and massive ; that the columns have no base or foot ; that the shoulder or capital of each column bulges at the bottom, and has a square slab on the top ; and that the frieze or middle part of the entablature is divided vertically into strips. Every other strip is a metope a space left blank or ornamented with sculpture and the strips in between are grooved. The Parthenon is the noblest example of the use of this Order. The Ionic Order has a very distinctive feature in its capital, which curves gracefully round into scrolls. The Corinthian Order also has a distinctive capital. It is bell-shaped, and ornamented with acanthus leaves. Less than a century ago much of the work of both the Mycenasan and Greek builders was buried deep down out of sight, together with rich treasures of sculpture, vases, metal-work, and jewellery that are now to be seen in various museums in Greece, notably in the National Museum at Athens. English, French, German, and American art-lovers have helped Modern Greece with money, brains, muscles, and enthusiasm to unearth much of her buried inheritance of ancient wealth and splendour. As your debt to the master-builders of Greece has become mixed up with an international debt to the excavators of that country, I am particularly anxious that you should not picture an excavating scene as so many people do two or three bald-headed professors grubbing among dust and ashes for gruesome skulls, dry bones, lifeless stones, and any old dead thing, the uglier the better, over which they can get up an argument. Excavating is one of the most exciting forms of exploration that you can possibly imagine. If I tell you what a well-known excavator of the present day has said about it you will, I hope, be able to conjure up a truer and far more fas cinating scene than the oft-imagined one against which I have warned you. Listen ! Do you think these sound like the cold-blooded sentiments of a Professor Dryasdust ? " The most intense excitement which I have ever felt is that of excavating. An artist who is overcome by this passion should describe the surroundings in which archaeo logical researches are being made, should reproduce from life the anxiety of the first attempts, describe the tech nique of the pits and trenches, and the coming to light of the documents which speak when history is silent. If the artist and the archaeologist could transmit to the reader the enthusiasm and excitement which he feels while standing among the labourers when the pick gives a hollow sound and the ground echoes as a presage of new discoveries ; if he could show the hands which tremble as they grope in the earth, or timidly pass over the fragments of a work of art to remove the coating of dust which hides it ; if he could explain the hidden power of excavation to exalt the mind, and the insistent, almost childish call on Fortune to grant new treasures, he would write, not a book, but a romance, a drama of the human soul which seeks the unknown ' (Dr. Angelo Mosso in " The Palaces of Crete and their Builders "). Acropolis Architecture You are on the Acropolis, standing on a rock platform amidst majestic marble forms that have been tanned from glistening white to rich warm orange and russet tints, melting into glowing topaz and delicate amber hues. What a panorama unfolds itself as you look down, up, and around ! Behold, amidst the slopes which billow round the foot of the Acropolis Hill there is another beautiful Greek building, another, and yet others, and there, in striking contrast to their straight-lined dignity, are massive round arches, telling in the poetry of curves the story of how the Romans conquered Greece, and how they, too, became a great building nation. Watch how the modern town is stealthily advancing over the plains, but there are still fine stretches of open country where olive-groves play stately games with the sun or sleep peacefully in their own shadow, untroubled by any immediate fear of being turned out of their ancient home by houses and shops. Look how the sea in the distance borders a long coast-line with a deep blue hem em broidered with silvery islands ! See how the mountains enfold Athens in their giant arms ! When you have looked at the changing scenes of the Athenian panorama from every angle of the Acropolis at one particular hour of the day, you have by no means come to the end of the magnificent show. At every hour of the day these scenes change colour. With a change of temperature tones fade or deepen. Thus, at dawn-break you may see Athens gleaming opalescent, at sun-height glittering every shade of blue from palest turquoise to deepest sapphire, at sunset glowing mauve, amethyst, violet, and right royal purple ; and inset among these great masses of rich milky opal, shaded blues, or variegated purples are the characteristic patches of local colour in which some of the hills, valleys, and marble temples clothe themselves at stated times of day. At sunset Hymettos dons a mantle of the most delicate rose pink tint ; in the early morning sunshine the bed of the Ilissus has a peacock coverlet ; in the full glare of sun shine the Acropolis is robed in golden-brown. And now, having given you some sunlight peeps into this enchanted kaleidoscope, I will leave you to picture yourself looking down at Athens from the Acropolis, or up at the Acropolis from Athens, in the fantastic moonlight. Before we leave the Acropolis, let us go and stand up by the little Temple of Nike. Look at the scene before you. It is the very picture which, in the hour of sunset, Byron describes so vividly, so graphically, in " The Corsair ": " Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Along Morea's hills the setting sun ; Not, as in Northern climes, obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light ! O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws Gilds the green wave, that trembles as it glows. On old ^gina's rock and Idra's isle, The god of gladness sheds his parting smile ; O'er his own regions lingering, loves to shine, Though there his altars are no more divine. Descending fast the mountain shadows kiss Thy glorious gulf, unconquer'd Salamis ! There azure arches through the long expanse More deeply purpled meet his mellowing glance, and tenderest tints, along their summits driven, Mark his gay course, and own the hues of heaven ; Till, darkly shaded from the land and deep, Behind his Delphian cliff he sinks to sleep." And now we will run down the long hill, up which we dragged ourselves step by step when we were coming to take a peep at the Athenian citadel. On the lower ground there are many remains of ancient Athens, among which I think you would enjoy wandering for a few moments before we dive into the modern town. Here is the Theseum, a finely preserved Doric temple dating from about 465 B.C. Not far off is a very much smaller and quite different type of building. It is a circular monument of fine design, roofed in with a single block of marble, and crowned with an ornament. The ornament supplies the key to the reason for which the monument was erected. It supported a triangular slab of marble whereon rested the bronze tripod won by Lysicrates, who in 335 B.C. was awarded the prize for the best-trained tragic chorus. This Cboragic Monument of Lysicrates is a type of the monu ments that were erected to commemorate the victories gained by athletic and artistic competitors in the Grecian festivals. There used to be a whole " Street of Tripods ' at Athens. Theatre of Dionysus Here is a great curved hollow in a side of the Acropolis Hill. This is the world-renowned Theatre of Dionysus. What stirring tales it has to tell of the vast crowds, some times thirty thousand strong, that foregathered here to watch a play by this or that favourite and famous national dramatist ! You can still see many of the seats of the multitude and some of the seats of the mighty. The masses sat round on the semicircular stone benches ; the priests and high dignitaries had marble thrones in the middle of the front rows. The performances took place in the daytime, and lasted for hours on end. That was in the days when the Greeks took the drama seriously. It was bound up with their religion, was a vital part of their national life. Nowadays they prefer a cinemato graph show ! Here is the " old ' stadium, looking spick and span, for a few years ago it was completely restored, with the object of reviving the ancient national games. Close by are some of the magnificent Corinthian columns of the ancient Temple of Jupiter Olympus, and another little walk brings us to the Tower of the Winds an octagonal building named after symbolic figures of the chief winds, with which it is ornamented in sculpture. It was designed for a very useful life. It housed a water-clock, and acted as a sundial and a weathercock. Near this tower is the street shown in one of the illustrations, and I am sure you will like to have the picture as a memento ; for it is your first glimpse of the quarter in Modern Athens that will fascinate you more than any other part of the town. There is a Western atmosphere about the rest of the new city. Trams run up and down the wide streets, the shops display French goods, the houses are handsomely-ordinary looking, the people you see about are more or less smartly attired in clothes such as you are accustomed to see at home. But in the neighbourhood of this street you feel the Eastern strain in native Greece, and if you have ever heard " the East a-callm'," how you will revel in this a sudden, unexpected plunge into an atmosphere which has something of the Oriental in it ! Look at the goods displayed for sale in this " Bazar Oriental," which quite frankly caters for tourist as well as native custom. Here are the red shoes with large black woollen pompons, as worn by so many of the peasants. The embroidered garments are peasant costumes. The little embroidered bags are made up as souvenirs ' from the bottom hem or sleeves of such costumes. You will certainly buy one, and just as certainly you will persuade yourself that your particular specimen has been manufactured from part of a brigand's coat. The big bags, which you will recognize as akin to the carpet-bags sometimes used by our country cousins, are made of coloured hemp. They are much in favour with the people for taking their vegetables to market, for carrying provisions for a journey, and for taking home their various purchases. Beads, jewellery, Oriental carpets and rugs, and old embroideries are also among the chief articles for sale at this emporium, where everything glows with colour, where crude bright patches of vermilion, indigo, and gamboge first strike your eye, and make the barbarian in you jump with joy as you become the proud possessor of this or that new trifle, and where rich harmonies of faded and washed-out old rose, silvery blue, lemon-gold, and terra-cotta rouse the artist in you till your heart aches and your hands itch to run away with all the costly old stuffs you see. We turn the corner round by this " Bazar", and find ourselves in a very narrow street lined with shops, mostly openfronted. The shopkeepers are mostly Greeks, some idle about the doors, others sit in the doorways busily at work. One narrow street leads into another. We are in a maze of alleys, and each alley has its special trade. In one we are amongst the bag-makers, in another we find the shoemakers, in another the makers and menders of pots and pans, or the harness-makers, who seem to spend most of their time in designing and making gay bead-trappings for the mules and donkeys. Yes, this quarter is noisy, smelly, stuffy, and dirty, I admit, but it is a feature of Modern Athens whch makes you feel that Greece must still be regarded as part of the Near East.
Link to this Page!
Related Items:
|
Greece Travel 
