HELLAS:
2002
Athena
("Athens")
by
Jody Neff
Copyright 2002
Jody Neff - All Rights Reserved.
As
you approach the Acropolis, you see the Odeion, where ancient
Greeks came to hear music and which was built in AD 161 by Tiberius
Claudius Atticus Herodes as a memorial to his wife. As the Greeks
looked up and to the right, they would have been able to see
the top part of the 40-foot statue of Athena Parthenos. Modern
Greeks call this structure the "Herodeion," and every
summer the Athens Festival is presented here. (Note the cypress
tree at left. Our tour guide, Dorina, from Homeric Land Tours
noted that only the female cypresses "have open arms.")
Through the gate. You can begin to see the scaffolding
in place for restoration for the 2004 Athens Olympics. See how
many tourists there are (and this is the slow season)?
Left: Not there yet. (These are surviving elements
of the Propylea.)
Same spot as above, left, but looking towards
the back of the Odeion with Athens in the distance. (See gate
at right.)
To the right, in the distance: The Theseion/Hephaisteion
(at the West end of the Agora,.) Built around 449 BC, it is a
temple to Hephaistos and Athena and exists as the best preserved
temple of ancient times.
Parthenon
Series
