Katie Jackson
2/16
The Ancient Agora
Today was
our day back to reality after an interesting and busy weekend traveling. We all
woke up dreary-eyed and exhausted for our Greek language class. Today we
learned to count to 1000, how to hold a simple conversation on the phone, and
then found out we have an oral presentation tomorrow that includes everything
we have learned so far. I have to be able to introduce myself, say where I’m
from, where I currently live, and my relationship status.
After our
class, 5 of the six girls decided to walk straight to the Agora, where our next
class was, and then get something to eat.
We were told it was under the Acropolis so we walked in that general
direction. Once we got to the base of the Acropolis, we asked a Greek lady
where it was. She pointed us to a street and told us it was about 5 minutes
away. After about 10 minutes of wandering, we figured we were in the wrong
place, so we went in and asked another Greek café owner. He pointed us in the
opposite direction. So we walked that way until we came across a group of
policemen, and then they pointed us to the right of where the older man said.
So we decided to follow the directions from the authorities and we walked
through a very hilly neighborhood until we finally came to an opening with a
few white columns. We walked up to the entrance and the sign read, “Roman
Agora”. Our faces dropped in confusing and anger as we all stood there in
disbelief. We had gone to the wrong Agora! We called Matt and he tried
directing us the right way, but it still took us ten more minutes of wrong
turns and asking the locals before we got there. We were only twenty minutes
late, but we still made it.
The Greek
Agora was a small village that birthed the ideas of our modern day
democracy. Ioanna first took us to the
museum, which was situated in the Stoa of Attalos. This is a building that was
restored by the Americans, so the columns were white as pearls and looked as though
it were just built. There were small stalls that, when active, acted as small
stores. Walking through the museum, there were many artifacts from the village
that held a lot of importance. One of them was the Ostraka. This was a brown
piece of clay with a persons named inscribed on it. The person’s whose name was
inscribed on the clay, was being “ostracized” and banned from the city of
Athens for 10 years. This happens when 6000 people of the city vote against
that one person because they fear that he/she is trying to hold all the power
to themselves and were compromising the democracy.
Another
interesting piece of the museum was the Kieroteria. This is a big, white grainy
piece of stone with 2-inch slots in rows and columns that sat outside the
courts. In each slots, those eligible for the jury service inserted bronze
identity pieces. Then, two bronze balls, white and black, were release by a crank,
and depending on which color emerged, the citizens were allowed into the court.
This was used to identify who would be the jury of the court randomly.
After we
walked through the museum, we walked around the ancient city. Ioanna stopped us
on the gravel road and told us to look up and down and really take everything
in. The reason for this is because the roads have not been restored and we were
walking the same streets the ancient Romans did. She also told us not to pick
anything up from the ground because the small red shards in the gravel were
broken pottery and it was illegal to take. The view from in side of the Temple
of Hephaistos was amazing. Looking up to the right, I could see the Acropolis.
To the left, I could see over the town of Athens, and hear all the loud sounds
of the city. I took a second to just take it all in and think of what it would
be like to be standing in that very place, overlooking the Argo in 500 B.C. as
the Athenians did. There would be no big building structures, or the loud metro
passing by, only fields beyond the quarters of the town, and a peaceful village
to look over. It was very sobering knowing that people were walking these very
streets over 3000 years ago.
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