Ashley Bruce
12 February 2013
Climbing the
Acropolis!
The smell dazed me as I was walking
up higher and higher. Finally I was able to take in deep gasps of fresh air. We
were on our way up the Acropolis to experience the Parthenon and all of the
other historic monuments. The meaning of Acropolis is the upper city in which
many of the cities of ancient Greece were constructed around it. Looking up pictures of the Acropolis and the
Parthenon don’t even compare to the real thing. As I got to the top, gasping
for my breath, I blocked out the sounds of little kids running around screaming
and crying, the clicks of cameras as people were taking pictures, and the
voices of adults just to stare out at the astonishing view and take everything
in to just realize how lucky I really am to actually get to be experiencing all
of this.
After taking in all of the beauty, Ioanna gave
us a tour of all of the temples and the meanings of them. My favorite temple is
located on the north side of the Acropolis, named The Erectheum. This temple
was in honor of Athena and Poseidon. The first king of Athens needed to find a
patron deity for the city. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and Poseidon, the god
of the seas both came forward to fight for this position. They each had to propose
something to give Athens value. Poseidon was first in the competition; he
struck with his trident which streamed out salt water. Then, Athena struck her
spear and created an olive tree. The olive tree symbolized peace and
prosperity. The king awarded Athena thus giving us the name for the stunning
city of Athens, Greece. One of my favorite parts is that the olive tree is still
planted in front of the temple.
The
Erectheum:
Another
part of this temple I really enjoyed was the caryatid columns. The caryatid
column is a column that is sculpted into a woman figure. These columns were
very detailed and eccentric. Their arms were behind their backs and you can see
the way their clothing flows with their body language. Each caryatid column was
the same on the temple. The Acropolis Museum is now restoring these caryatids
and is using laser treatment to clean off atmospheric pollutants. They are also
fixing unstable segments of the marble statues to save them from crumbling.
Caryatid
Columns:
Being
at the top of this mountain was definitely a change from being in the city of
Athens. It was a nice change to actually breathe some fresh air instead of
taking in the smell of gasoline from all of the cars, mopeds, and crazy
motorcyclists and the smell of fresh dog poop everywhere from all of the stray
puppies. But nothing against the stray pups, because they are my favorite no
matter how dirty and unwashed they look or smell! But for now, I will have to
try and enjoy these smells until the next time I climb to the top of the
Acropolis!
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