My desire to visit Greece was born when I began studying Hellenistic culture in classical high school. Reading the authors’ writings, I dreamed of visiting those legendary places, I imagined witnessing opera performances in ancient theaters, of being able to admire every single temple up close.
These places I’m about to describe to you are part of one of the trips that moved me the most and that I will carry forever in my heart.
What to see:
Athens
The Acropolis of Athens, inhabited since the Neolithic, has always been the seat of the city’s oldest cults.
The current appearance of the complex is due to the reign of Pericles, who entrusted the superintendence of all the works to Phidias, a painter, sculptor and architect famous at that time.
The buildings of the Acropolis:
- The Parthenon
- The Propylaea
- The Temple of Athena Nike
- The Erechtheion
THE PARTHENON
The Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BC, is the main temple of the Acropolis, dedicated to the Virgin Athena, protector of the city.
Like most classical Greek temples, the Parthenon is also mathematically proportioned according to the «golden section», a proportion also found in nature, which gives harmony and perfection to architecture and sculpture.
The temple’s decorations tell the story of the city in an allegorical key: on the external frieze, in Amazonomachy one can recognize the clashes with the Persians, while with Centauromachy one symbolizes the struggle between bestiality and rationality. The temple’s pediments house the birth of Athena on the eastern pediment and the race between Athena and Poseidon for possession of Attica on the eastern one. The internal frieze narrates the procession of the Panathenaea, during which the procession of Athenian citizens crossed the city to the Acropolis, to celebrate the goddess Athena, protector of the city, in her temple.
THE PROPYLAEA
The Propylaea represent the actual entrance to the Acropolis, in fact their name means «by the gates».
THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA NIKE
On the bastion south of the Propylaea, this small temple is built to celebrate the victory of the Marathon War (Athena Nike, i.e. Athena the victor). It is composed of a large, shallow cella and a façade decorated with four Ionic columns.
ERECHTHEION
The Erechtheion is dedicated to Athena Polyades and Poseidon the Erechtheion, in fact it is said that the olive tree donated by Athena and the traces of Poseidon’s trident were venerated inside. On the southern side there is a small loggia supported by six maidens, the Caryatids, whose supporting function is masked by the grace of the female body wrapped in peplos.
Delphi
Delphi is home to a famous sanctuary, home to an oracle, the Pythia, which at the time influenced the political life of all of Greece.
The sanctuaries of ancient Greece were gathering places where Panhellenic meetings were held, on the occasion of the feasts of the deities, and were often located far from inhabited areas, where a sacred presence had been perceived.
Legend has it that Zeus, wanting to define the center of the world, flew two eagles from one end of the eastern and western worlds to the other: where they joined, that would be the center. The two eagles met just below Mount Parnassus, at Delphi, which became the omphalos (navel) of the ancient world.
Mycenae
The remains of the Mycenae rock were discovered in 1876 by Heinrich Schliemann.
The fortress dates back to 1300 BC, the palace is built around a courtyard, arranged in steps on successive terraces connected to each other by stairways and ramps.
The entrance to the fortress is protected by the Lions’ Gate, which opens into the citadel’s defensive walls. It is a trilithon surmounted by a triangular monolith decorated with a low relief representing two lionesses rampant resting their forepaws on the double base of a column, a heraldic scheme of Cretan tradition.
Also worth visiting is the Treasury of Atreus, the largest tomb in Mycenae. The structure of this monumental stone construction is made up of three parts: a long and wide corridor, the dromos, cut into the hill and flanked by a wall of cut stones arranged in orderly rows, which ends against the facade of the tomb; the hall covered by the false dome, the tholos, composed of 33 concentric turns of projecting stones, with a circular plan; finally the square-plan funeral chamber, cut into the rock.
Among the various objects found at the tombs of Mycenae, Schliemann believed he had discovered the remains of the legendary Achaean king Agamemnon, from a golden mask resting on the face of a body. Archaeological research later established that the mask of Agamemnon is older than the time the king is believed to have lived, but the name by which it is known has stuck.
Olympia
The Olympics were born here, precisely on June 22, 776 BC and even today every four years the Olympic flame starts from this mythical place.
The event of the Olympic Games was able to unify all the ancient Greek cities, even those in perpetual struggle with each other. This athletic competition was first and foremost a religious celebration in honor of the gods, complete with ceremonies and sacrifices before each competition.
The Theatre of Epidaurus
Built by Polykleitos of Argos in the 4th century BC, it can accommodate up to 14,000 people.
This is the first theatrical building constructed with forms that allow for a new usability of the architectural space and a perfect acoustic rendering: the shape assumed by the theatre is that of a semicircular staircase, resting on a natural slope and divided into radial sectors by flights of stairs.
