Abi and I walked up Lykabettos again. It was super hazy, so the sun came up muted and red, which I hadn’t seen yet on our morning hikes. We headed back down afterwards to get ready for the final trip to the Acropolis.
The final sites we had to explore on the Acropolis were the Dorpfeld Foundations, the Erechtheion, and many of the peripheral buildings on the South Slope. I’ll give a short blurb about each place we visited. We began at the Dorpfeld Foundations.
The Dorpfeld Foundations are also referred to as the site of the Old Athena Temple on the Acropolis. In fact, there may have been more than one temple on this site. There was certainly one built in around 500 BCE that stood here and was destroyed by the Persians when they sacked the city in 480 BCE. The speculative earlier temple may have been built on the same foundations around 560 BCE. It’s still disputed because some scholars claim that the older temple’s foundations could be under the Parthenon, but they were not found by coring during the restoration project. That doesn’t mean they’re not there, only that we don’t have any evidence for them yet.
Porch of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion
Hole in the North Porch floor where it's possible the marks of the Trident of Poseidon were.
The Erechtheion is a weird building. There are parts of it, like the central portion, that are obviously trying to look like a canonical temple. However, the topography of the Acropolis is such that there is a steep drop in the bedrock as you move across the temple, so measures had to be taken to actually create a standing building that broke with canonical temple construction. The South Porch, home of the famous caryatids, the statues of women in place of columns, overlaps with the foundations of the Old Athena Temple. This is obviously intentional and could have to do with a desire to tie the two buildings together in a religious context. There’s also a hole in the ceiling and floor on the North Porch that purportedly was left that way to expose the legendary trident marks that Poseidon made during his attempt to become the patron god of the city. Again, that’s totally speculative.
The Odeion. It's used for modern productions today, much like the theater at Epidauros.
As described on the day we went to the Panathenaic Stadium, Herodes Atticus was a questionable individual. But, he gave a lot of stuff to the city that is still standing and we’re not about to turn down some cool architecture. The Odeion, literally the place of songs, was a huge space that was also roofed. In his treatise on architecture, Vitruvius talks about how to roof such a space, so we know it was possible.
Inside the stoa at the Asklepeion.
The Asklepieion was a sanctuary for Asklepios, the god of healing, and his children. The site, which was originally established by a man named Telemachus, was eventually administered by the state after the cult grew in popularity. The stoa that sheltered the area next to the cliffs was worked and reworked by both the Greeks and Romans. There is a sacred spring behind the stoa, but the door was locked and no guards were around to let us in.
The Sanctuary of Dionysus was our final stop on the South Slope. The god was extremely popular in Athens due to his association with the theater. In fact, his theater is just outside the borders of the sanctuary. One interesting at feature of sanctuaries is that the altar is in the middle, not the temple. People tend to fixate on temples as being the central focus of Ancient Greek religion, but there are many sanctuaries that don’t have a temple. The altar would have been where all sacrifices and libations took place. The temple is the house of the god, but is ultimately unnecessary if you have an altar.
After the South Slope lecture concluded, we headed back to the school for lunch. Of course, a gelato stop was required along the way. Luke, Abi, and I all got mango gelato. I hadn’t really eaten it before I came to Greece, but Luke’s evangelism of the flavor has taken hold. Back at the school, we had delicious cheese pie and salad for lunch, accompanied by some amazing nectarines.
Following lunch, we were back off again, bound for the Byzantine Museum. We haven't covered Byzantine material as intensively as material from other time periods, so it was nice to explore the era a little bit more. And when I say “the era,” I mean the longer than 1000 year period that the Empire in some form existed. So obviously covering everything was impossible. We did have a really interesting lecture from Agnes Szymanska, a graduate student at Temple University. She talked about her specialty, which is Christian art and architecture before the Arab conquest of Byzantine Egypt. The mix of new religious tradition and the remnants of Hellenism and Ancient Egypt combine to create some fascinating combinations of iconography. We also played the game where you give things to people, only this time you could choose something for yourself or for someone else of your choice.
I’ll be honest, I haven't been super concerned with looking very closely at a lot of the icons we’ve seen in Byzantine churches. But something clicked today. Icons of saints are a continuation of the hero cults we see so often in Ancient Greece. The Byzantine culture, heavily influenced by Greece and Rome, despite shifting dominant religions, kept finding ways to lionize individuals and their feats. When you look at the icons of saints that way, they become so much more interesting! In that same vein, Melanie gifted to me a martyrs’ altar on which people left offerings for martyrs of early Christianity. The actions required would be literally the same as offering to a hero on the altar. I don’t know why this connection didn’t click before, but having this experience was very exciting.
St. Jerusalem and her sons. All were killed in horrible ways before she was tortured to death for refusing
to renounce her faith.
The Martyrs' Altar. It's reminiscent of a sekoma, the measuring tables.
Finally, we left the museum and I headed out for an early dinner. Asia, Sallie, Melanie, and I ate at this amazing pasta place in Kolonaki. Definitely going back there when I can. Tomorrow is our last day trip, this one to Aegina. We’ll get some beach in too, which is great.
Thanks for reading.
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