
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.


The Acropolis Museum is solely devoted to findings from Greece’s most striking and complete monumental complex. In addition to extensive displays of pottery, sculpture and other artefacts, one floor is devoted to the images portrayed on the Parthenon’s pediments (gable ends), metopes and frieze.



These images gave Athenians a glimpse into the mythic age when the gods supposedly walked among mortals. The eastern pediment depicted the birth of Athena, full grown, from out of Zeus’ head. (photo, above) She stands between her father (seated) and the axe bearing god Hephaestus in the photo above. Some of the other depictions on the Acropolis include:
- The contest for hearts of Athenians which the goddess Athena won through her gift of an olive tree, as opposed to the stream (of what turned out to be salt water) offered by Poseidon.
- Scenes from the life of the hero kingThesus, who freed the city by Minoan domination by killing the legendary Monitor and defeated an Amazon invasion on nearby Philopappos Hill
- The procession of horsemen, chariots, offerings and animals through Athens during the Panathenaea (“all-Athenian festival”) held in honour of Athena’s birthday. All the cities inhabitants, except slaves, could participate until they reached the gateway of the Acropolis. Only citizens could proceed beyond that to the the altar of Athena in front of the Erechtheum.

I visited the Acropolis twice.
We were the first to arrive before the gate, the morning after our arrival in Athens. There was a slight chill in the air, and the ‘dawn chorus’ was underway. We were surprised to find that the birds are just as boisterous in the city as they are back home on Cortes Island. The space around us slowly filled up. The line didn’t form up until about 7:30 AM, at which point there was some jostling for place. Most of us had booked online, but a guide offered a place in her tour for the same price it would cost to get in. When there weren’t any takers, she lowered her price to $5 below the price at the gate.
There was no need to rush. A large tour entered first, but stepped to one side so that their guide could give an introductory lecture. The rest of us passed on.
As impressive as the Acropolis is, I was just as interested in the blocks that are piled up across the site. According to Rick Steves, some of them originate with the Mycenaean palace that once stood where the Erechtheion is. A number of guide books proclaim that the temple of Athena Nike stands on a foundation made up of blocks from the Mycenaean wall that once encircled the Acropolis. This was one of the 45 citadels that arose during this era. Their history is primarily remembered through the half-true lens of mythology.



There were several people working on the outer wall of the Acropolis the morning we arrived. One of the staff said the Acropolis Restoration Project began in 1975 and will continue for decades to come.
It was 25°C the afternoon I returned, and there is very little shade on the sun drenched Acropolis. Coming from a tree clad hill on Cortes Island, where the temperature was only 11°, it seemed hot. The staff member said this was comfortable, but he was dreading the impending +40° days of summer.
One of the little talked about attractions of the Acropolis is one of the best vantage points of the city. People line up along the walls to get a peek. Looking up from the streets below, you can see them whenever the Acropolis is open. Someone might be pointing to Hadrian’s Arch, “We just came from there.” To which their companions respond, “That’s where we had lunch,” “My AirBnB is over there,” or “Look, that’s the Ancient Agora!”



5,000-year-old pottery shards testify to the antiquity of human settlement, but the Agora we are familiar with came into being when Athens was rebuilt after the Persian Wars. It was centred along the Panathenaic Way, which connected the main gate of the city with the Acropolis. The Agora was the city’s political, judicial, social, and commercial hub, where the great leaders of the Classical era met with the rest of the inhabitants.
Every male citizen over the age of 18 was allowed to speak in the General Assembly, which met about 40 times a year. Voting was usually carried out by a show of hands. (The ‘full time’ government was a council of 500, chosen by lot from among the city’s 10 tribes.)

Once a year the Assembly cast ballots to select the leaders believed to be threatening democracy. The losers were exiled for 10 years. Pericles was among those nominated, but there were not enough votes against him. Two leaders from the struggle against Persia, Kimon and Aristides ‘the Just,’were not as lucky.
When the assembly grew too large, they were moved to Pnyx Hill. Between 6,000 and 10,000 people could sit on the ground or on portable seats. Eventually this proved too small, and the Assembly moved to the Theatre of Dionysus.

The world’s first shopping centre was probably the Stoa of Attalos, which was erected on the Agora between 159 and 138 BC. It was a covered walkway, 116 metres long, where merchants set up their stalls and scholars set up study rooms. Attalos II, King of Pergamus, bestowed it on the city in gratitude for the education he received from a local philosopher. The Stoa of Attalos was destroyed by a Germanic tribe in 267 AD, but a modern reconstruction (top of page) has been erected on the site.


In 399 BC, a jury of 500 met in the Agora to decide the fate of Socrates – a 70-year-old philosopher accused of corrupting Athens youth by teaching them ‘thinkery.’ After two hours of deliberation, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. According to tradition, he was imprisoned in a cave on Philapappos Hill prior to being given a cup of hemlock juice (a fatal poison) to drink. Some archaeologists think it more likely he was held in a prison beside the Agora.

The Apostle Paul brought his ‘strange ideas’ of Christianity to the Agora in 53 AD. After debating with him, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers brought him before Athens’ highest court (the Areopagus) which was meeting across from the Acropolis on Mars Hill. This was where Paul preached:
“People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17:22-30, NIV)
Paul was one of many Roman citizens to visit Athens.

(in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens)


The Romans adopted Greece’s gods, art and literature. In return, they bestowed Athens with a privileged position within the Empire. When the Agora grew too cramped, they built the Roman Agora to handle the overflow.

Looking from the Temple of Olympian Zeus towards the Acropolis– Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 DEED)
Emperor Hadrian (r 117-138 AD) visited Athens three times, the last time being when he dedicated the Temple of Olympian Zeus in 131 AD. Construction began about 520 BC, when the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchos ruled the city. Work stopped when they were expelled a decade later, and the temple remained unfinished for 6 centuries.

The Arch of Hadrian was erected to commemorate the Emperor’s visit. An inscription on the side facing the Acropolis bears the inscription, ‘this is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus.’ On the opposing side, it states ‘this is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus.’
Hadrian also erected the celebrated library bearing his name and an aqueduct to bring fresh water.

His friend Herodes Atticus built the Odeon, at the foot of the Acropolis, in honour of his late wife Regillia.


One of our favourite walks, during the 10 days we were in Athens, was a series of paths on Philapappos Hill. You can see the Sardonic Gulf from a viewpoint beside the monument at the top. Another favourite is the Dionysiou Areopaglio, which curls along the foot of the Acropolis.

As it can be seen from many points throughout the city, and is only about 4 blocks from our AirBnB, the Acropolis was the beacon that guided us home during our explorations of the city.
We often passed through the quaint Anafiotika neighbourhood, which workmen from the island of Anafi built in the style of their homeland. This is where they resided while erecting the former Royal Palace that now houses the Greek Parliament. The 50 houses remaining there seem to be transplanted from the Cyclades and do not resemble anything in Athens.






Our experience of Greek food is limited, but I found their vegetables (especially tomatoes) to be far fresher and flavourful than what is available through Canadian chain stores. Greek salads are usually served with a huge slab of feta cheese, which is not as salty as Canadian and often somewhat creamy. Athenian pies, both sweet and savoury, are delicious.
There was an abundance of tavernas, cafes and live music almost everywhere we went in the older parts of the city.



Top image credit: Reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos, built by King Attalos II of Pergamon (159 BC -138 BC). – All undesignated photos by Roy L Hales
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