Tag Archives: Athens

Politics

Campbell River’s Acropolis: Power, Politics and the Price of Strathcona Gardens

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The Acropolis is now perceived as a pinnacle of human achievement, yet 2,500 years ago many Greek city-states viewed it as a monument to tyranny. The funding for monuments like the Parthenon, Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike came from the Delian League—a coalition originally formed to resist the expanding Persian Empire. However there came a point when the Persian campaigns were more about the Athenian Empire than liberty. The traditional date for this transition is 454 BC, when the great Athenian statesman Pericles transferred the Delian League’s treasury from Delos to Athens. Plutarch described this as the moment the city lost its integrity and reputation. The funds raised to free Greek cities were instead used to adorn Athens with ‘costly statues and temples worth their millions.’ (Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 12.)   

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History, Tourism

Visiting Athens: Part Two – 10 Days

In the first part of this story, I talked about my desire to go to Athens, gave a historical overview of the city’s Classical era and looked at some DNA research that suggests the ancestors of most people of European descent had a small part in Greece’s history. 

Our AirBnB was in the Plaka district, which has been inhabited for the past 5,000 years. The remains of a Roman bath house were in our basement and backyard. It seems to extend into the neighbouring property, where two men were at work throughout our stay. This does not seem to be exceptional. There are ruins throughout the older neighbourhoods of Athens. Only a block to the northeast of us, the remains of an ancient neighbourhood, with streets, houses, bath houses, public latrines and workshops dating from the 5th century BC to the 12th century AD, are on display underneath the Acropolis Museum. No one knew anything about them until construction on the museum began in the 1980s.

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History, Tourism

Visiting Athens: Part One – A Genetic Odyssey

My desire to write grew out of stories from Greek antiquity that I read as a boy. I’ve always wanted to visit Greece, only something else always seemed to be more important. This year one of my daughters suggested, “Why don’t you just do it?” So we did!

A Greek electrical contractor named Alexander sat beside my wife and I during the last leg of our flight into Athens. He rents a home in London, where he works, but has purchased property in Patras. That’s where Alexander hopes to retire. 

“Get away from Athens and the tourist sites. Go into the country, that’s where you’ll get to see the real Greek people!” he advised us.

We did the opposite. 

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