Athens Travel. The Acropolis and the Old City.

Athens Travel Acropolis the Old City

You are all excitement ; the next station is Athens ; in a few minutes you will be in the capital of Greece. You are thinking of the many wonderful things that are waiting for you in one of the most famous old treasure cities of the world, when presently the train pulls up.

Athens only makes the surprise that is in store for you all the more enchanting, for however beautiful you have pictured the city in your wildest dreams, in reality it is far more beautiful.

Athens of to-day has a dual existence. It consists of the very ancient city which raised itself to the political position of leader of Greece in the fifth century B.C., and established its claims to be recognized as the mother of Greek art and learning, and of the modern city, with its two large squares, some good streets, splendid houses, palatial hotels, and fine public buildings, which has sprung up in the interval since 1834, when Athens, then a small village of about three hundred houses, was chosen by Modern Greece as her new seat of government.

Acropolis

I am going to take you straight to the old city first of all. There, away in the distance, looking down from the top of a hill, is the ancient Athenian citadel, the Acropolis. Round the foot of the Acropolis Hill are perfect remains and magnificent ruins of the old city that was built without the fortress walls as the population increased, art and literature sprung to life, manufactures were founded, commerce was established with the great markets of the ancient world, and Athens grew up from a little garrison to a big, strong, beautiful, and flourish ing centre of political supremacy, commercial activity, and unique culture. The progressive modern town was born to the north and north-east of the old city. In its short life of less than a hundred years it has already spread itself out over a long and wide area.

It is a tiring, zigzag climb up to the Acropolis, but at last we are mounting a broad flight of steps leading to the Propylaea, or entrance-gateway. The imposing ruins of this great marble structure take up the whole of the upper west side of the Acropolis. The work was begun in 437 B.C. According to the design, it was to have consisted of a central gateway and two wings, but one wing was never completed. In spite of its unfinished condition, the Propylaea was regarded in its time as one of the finest examples of Greek architecture, and even the ruins bid us believe that it was one of the most wonderful of all the wonderful buildings erected by a world-famous race of builders. Through a maze of giant columns we pass into the Acropolis, and find our selves standing on a levelled hill-top space. Its form, roughly speaking, is elliptical, and on its outline appear remains of the massive fortress walls which guarded the ancient citadel.

Besides the Propylaea, there are two great buildings now standing on the Acropolis the Parthenon and the Erechtheum and they have a small but very beautiful companion in the Temple of Nike Apteros.

The Parthenon, erected between 454 B.C. and 438 B.C., is celebrated as the most beautiful of all Greek buildings. The architects who designed it were named Ictinus and Callicrates. The decoration of their building involved a great national responsibility, for in itself it was a perfect work of art. The task was entrusted to the sculptor Phidias, who won everlasting fame by the way he carried it out.

Some of the most beautiful and best-preserved of the sculptures which adorned the Parthenon are now numbered by England among her most precious national treasures. If you have not already been to the British Museum to see them, you should go there for this express purpose as soon as ever you can. It is a great treat for you to look forward to, however these should have stayed in Greece.

Erechtheum

The Erechtheum dates from 420 B.C. to 393 B.C. This temple was specially sacred in the eyes of the Athenians, as it contained the shrine of Athena Polias, the guardian of the city, together with various State treasures intimately connected with their religion. In spite of the fact that the Erechtheum has been altered, despoiled, patched up, destroyed, and restored, it is rich in the possession of much of its original beauty. One of its most interesting parts is the Southern or Caryatid Porch, in which six sculptured maidens (Caryatides), standing on a marble parapet, carry the roof on their heads. You can see one of the original Caryatides in the British Museum. It has been replaced in the porch by a terra cotta cast.

The little temple of Nike Apteros, or " Wingless Victory,' 1 was built in 438 B.C. to commemorate the three great Athenian victories of Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. It was destroyed by the Turks in the seven teenth century, and the materials were built into a battery. The battery in its turn was destroyed in 1836, the materials of the temple were recovered, and the temple was reconstructed.

Let us now go and rest awhile in the shadow of the Parthenon, while I talk to you for a few minutes about the Greek master-builders whose work still adorns the Acropolis, and entices artistic pilgrims not only to many other parts of Greece besides Athens, but to Italy, Sicily, and Asia Minor, where they worked with equal skill and industry.

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