The Acropolis

It was a sunny and hot day when Brenda and I went up the Acropolis. After roaming around Argos and finding shelter underneath the trees, we were up and about walking the path to the most important site of Athens.

happy high on the steps

Acropolis (acro=edge + polis=city) is the "Sacred Rock" of Athens. It is located on top of a hill where ancient buildings/monuments stands tall, iconic symbols of architecture and of great historic significance, not only to Greece but also to the whole world. It serves as the focal point of ancient Greek culture and the artistic development in the 5th century BC. It has been said that it also served as a cult place or residential area. It's quite scary for me using the word cult. Of course, back then or even to this very day and age, the word cult has a negative connotation. However, since we are talking back Neolithic age and the dawn of such great civilization, cult practices were all done for the great Gods and Godesses. In this case, everything was adorned for the Godess Athena. 

A big kudos goes to Pericles, who during the Golden Age (5th bc), initiated the construction the site's most important monuments like the Parthenon, Erectheion and the temple of Athena Nike. He was the well known and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens. 

Temple of Athena Nike

Now with the mention of Nike, this seems to be the greatest and most widely used symbol. Of course we all know about the Nike symbol right? so apparently, in Greek, Nike means victory.  And Athena, being the Godess of war, is the epitomizes victory in war and wisdom. Thus, Athena Nike. It's just amazing how Nike, the brand, has used this in so many years, and now I look at it differently. I think of Athena herself. hahaha. It was just hilarious when we were talking about during the group tour. And George was right, it's everywhere...except in the Temple of Athena Nike itself. Don't you find that ironic? 

Brenda was speechless when we got to the Amphitheatre. Being a theatre artist herself, it has been her major dream to get to the ampitheatre. It is actually called the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a massive and elegant stone edifice located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis. This location was used for all of the music events. George gave us a tip on how to shout and then have the echo work out. Brenda had a very strong theatrical voice. So she started doing her vocal practices. So many people stopped and gave her the thumbs up. She was smiling ear to ear, so happy to have her dream happening right there and then. This was however destroyed into ruins by the East Germanic Tribe Heruli in 267 AD. 

The Acropolis is highly known because of the Parthenon. It is the most important monument of the ancient Greek civilization. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin). It was initially built in 447 BC. Of course, it was Pericles who spear headed the construction, the supervisor was the famous Athenian sculptor Pheidias. 

The Parthenon itself has been noted as the symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, Western civilization. Even to this day there's a lot of restoration that's happening. Even that day when we visited there were a lot of scaffolding and teams making sure that it's still in tact. The origin of the name Parthenon comes from a Greek word which when translated means "unmarried woman's apartments". Yeah, i found that weird too. I wonder if that's because of the virgin dedication to Athena Parthenos.

The whole day of walking was all worth it. A lot of people didn't want to buy a 12 Euro ticket, but for Brenda and I, that was the best way to actually explore and feel the grounds of one of the world's greatest walks of history.