We were exceptionally lucky to begin, not in the public, ticketed part of the Agora, but, in one of the highlights of our trip so far, we were able to visit an archeological dig being conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This foundation-funded operation has connections to universities and liberal arts colleges throughout the United States.
We visited a dig in a section north of Adrianou Street, across from the ticket entrance to the Ancient Agora. We had a guided tour from John Camp, the director of excavations who took us down into the site where dozen of college and graduate students, mostly from programs in Classics, were spending their summers unearthing and identifying treasures within the site. He talked to us both about the importance of the excavations, showing the times when the Greeks were inventing democracy and refining its forms; about what the excavations have found as one layer of settlement after another had been removed to get down to the oldest occupants of the site, and about what excavations are to come. He acknowledged that he was describing plans that would be implemented by future directors of excavation, just as his own tenure had followed paths laid out by his predecessors going back to 1931.
He explained that the travelogue written by Pausanias had both been confirmed by findings at the site, and had enable them archeologists to identify what they were finding by reference to his wriing. We heard, for example, about the Painted Stoa, the main building in this area, which featured a painting gallery and was used for aimless socializing in Ancient Greece, eventually having been taken over by Xeno and his school of philosophy, who became known as the Stoics after the venue of their gatherings. We were shown some inscriptions in stone at the edge of the dig area, and noted some of the buildings that would likely have to be taken down so that the digs could continue. Although we were allowed to take photographs, we were asked not to post anything photographed while we were inside the dig area on social media (including this blog), to ensure that the national
authorities overseeing antiquities would have first dibs on everything found in this non-public area.
After walking through the area of the active dig, we stood overlooking the site of a former dig, on the south side of Adrianou Street, pictured below.
The road going diagonally off to the left was the Panathenian Way, which continues through the public part of the Ancient Agora and on up to the Parthenon. The rectangular area with columns was the Stoa of the King Archon, and marks the spit where Socrates was interrogated and then charged by the Archon with impiety, leading to his execution. Camp explained that the very road on which we were standing would eventuallty have to be taken down so that excavations conuld continue there, and the section of current excavations connected to the public portion of the Ancient Agora. He did not say whether he expected the train tracks at the back of this public area would also have to be re-routed.
We had lunch at a restaurant along Adrianou Street, then Nancy and I separated from the reast of our family and headed into the Ancient Agora for a visit. The visit should have been covered by the tickets we had bought for the Acropolis, but the ticket seller back there had sold us the 20 euro tickets covering only the acropolis itself as well as the Theatre of Dionysus, not the 30 euro ticket covering multiple additional venues, and I was feeling too rushed by the approach of the end of the day to insist on the larger ticket at least for Nancy and myself, because I was certain that we would want to get to several other venues. Again I used the invaluable Rick Steves audio tour to guide our visit; here it was somewhat harder to follow the exact trail, but using the hard-copy map I had printed before leaving DC was helpful in that regard.
We strode along the Pan-Athenaian way, which Athenians would have used to access the Acropolis, particularly in the annual procession, following the Pan-Athenaic festival, to present a newly prepared dress to Athena
to the Stoa of Attalos, which had been reconstructed years ago by the American School of Classical Studies.
At first, we visited the ground floor only, which consisted of a museum of artifacts recovered by excavations within the agora, including the early version of a voting machine with slots into which ballots could be cast
and these disks used in the voting to ostracize Themistocles (that is, to send him into exile, a technique designed to give the citizenry a way to exercie control over corrupt or possibly overbearing rulers)
This vase with a small hole at the bottom was used as a clock to regulate the time for speakers at citizen-gathering – when the water finished running out, the speaker’s time was up
These “herms" would have topped road markers
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This was Roman statuary showing more realistic facial expressions
Toward the end of our time in the agora, we visited the second story of the Stoa, which contained a gallery of statuary
as well as this model of the Parthenon
Leaving the Stoa of Attalos, we walked further along the Pan-Athenaian way to the ruin of the Middle Stoa, which was built during the Roman times,
and then on to the Tholos, the place where the inner leadership of Athens was housed and from which they ruled
Beside the Tholos was the bouletrion (not pictured), where the full assembly would meet
From there, we followed a footpath and steps
up to the Temple of Hephaistos, a well-preserved Doric temple built in the middle of the fifth century BC, after the Athenian victory over the Persians
seen here from the other side of the agora
Here are details of its friezes, depicting the battle of Theseus and the Lapiths against the Centaurs
Here is a statue of Hadrian
The detail of his belt buckle shows Rimuklus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf, the founding legend of Rome
the illustration of Athena on his breast-plate shows Hadrian’s appreciation of Greek culture and his proclamation of his own role as its savior
Then we passed by the large Odeon of Agrippa, built in the Roman period; after its unsupported roof collapsed in AD 150. it was replaced by a smaller building fronted with six large pillars in the form of Tritons, including these
This head, shown in the Stoa of Attalos, was formerly on one of these statues
We went further along the Pan-Athenaian way toward an 11th century church; stopping along the way to see a wall, known as the Post-Herculian Wall, that was erected after Athens was sacked by the Herculians during the 3rd Century AD
Here is the church of the Holy Apostles, built in roughly 1000 AD. it was later used by Muslims after the Ottoman Conquest; during this time Arabic letters were added to the external walls
Heading home, we peeked into the 16th century Church of Agia Dynamis (The Holy Power of the Virgin), nestled among the columns of the modern Electra Metropolis Hotel.
My daughter-in-law had an off-putting experience in the afternoon. One of her best friends from her middle school years onward happens to have been in Paris this summer, and swung by Athens for a surprise visit. The two of them went out for drinks together, assuming that they would while aaway the time until the rest of us were ready to go out for dinner. They stopped into the very closest restaurant to our apartment, the 2Mazi. These two African-American women were first directed by the hostess to go see the bartender about being seated; he sent them back to the hostess, who told them to read the menu, supposedly to be sure that the process were within their range. When they said they were fine with them, the hostess told them that they could not be seated because there would be nothing available to them until 10 PM (even though the place was empty). They were certain that the issue was racial animus. They went elsewhere. I had noticed the place out first night and, upon reading the menu, decided that the whole operation seemed pretentious albeit attractive on its surface. Turns out that they are much worse than that.
(I posted an account of this on Trip Advisor, which it refused to post. My thinking it that I am going to stop spending time writing reviews for Trip Advisor)
For dinner, we ate at the excellent Thespis, www.thespis.gr, which straddles Thespidos street as it climbs toward the base of the Acropolis cliffs, but also runs its tables down into a courtyard below Thespidos
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