Cosmo's Athens
May 3rd 2008 02:34
We stood on the steps of the hotel and took in the panorama of blue and white – the sun-bleached stone houses rising in thick layers across the slopes of the low, rocky hills and above them, against a flawless, early morning sky, the pale cliffs of the Acropolis, crowned by the towering columns of the Parthenon. We had one day, one frustratingly, almost insultingly, inadequate day to explore Athens. How could we cram thousands of years of civilization, history and culture into twenty four hours, less if we planned to sleep? Where should we start? How should we start? As luck would have it, the doorman had an uncle, who had a taxi…
The doorman’s uncle was an imposing, bronzed figure, with a head of thick white hair, a gravelly voice which rang with conviction, a hearty laugh, an enthusiastic handshake and a profile which would have looked well on an antique medallion. His name was Cosmo. As a young man, Cosmo had worked, married and had his family in Australia. He had returned to Greece with them twenty years ago, to settle and enjoy the prime of his life, sharing his home in the hills and his villas in the islands with family and friends and showing his city to tourists. He knew Athens. He knew Australians, New Zealanders too. He knew what they liked and what they wanted to see. He knew what would make us happy. No worries!
It became clear, as he whizzed us around, pulling in under monuments while the traffic banked up honking around us, parking in clearways, seizing spaces from tourists coaches and idling with impunity on pavements, that Cosmo belonged to Athens and Athens belonged to Cosmo.
He gave us ancient Athens, its monuments, their history and their stories; the Arch of Hadrian, the gateway to the benevolent Emperor’s new Roman Athens; the mighty Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest in the ancient world, begun by Peisistratus and completed by Hadrian 700 years later; the beautiful marble Panathinaikon Stadium, built in the 4th century, where the first modern Olympics took place in 1896; the Acropolis, with the ruins of the “glory that was Greece” – the architecturally perfect Parthenon, the sanctuary and the theatre of Dionysus, birthplace of drama, the theatre of Herodeion, home of the annual Athens festival, the Agora, the political, commercial and religious centre of the ancient city; the high slippery limestone rock of Mars Hill, once Athens’ highest court, where St Paul first preached the Gospel in AD 51 and the cemetery of Kerameikos, the oldest and largest in Attica. He gave us the capricious gods, the mighty kings and the super heroes who shaped this great city.
Next post; Cosmo's Athens, Part 2; Modern Athens and Mount Hymettus
The Acropolis
The doorman’s uncle was an imposing, bronzed figure, with a head of thick white hair, a gravelly voice which rang with conviction, a hearty laugh, an enthusiastic handshake and a profile which would have looked well on an antique medallion. His name was Cosmo. As a young man, Cosmo had worked, married and had his family in Australia. He had returned to Greece with them twenty years ago, to settle and enjoy the prime of his life, sharing his home in the hills and his villas in the islands with family and friends and showing his city to tourists. He knew Athens. He knew Australians, New Zealanders too. He knew what they liked and what they wanted to see. He knew what would make us happy. No worries!
It became clear, as he whizzed us around, pulling in under monuments while the traffic banked up honking around us, parking in clearways, seizing spaces from tourists coaches and idling with impunity on pavements, that Cosmo belonged to Athens and Athens belonged to Cosmo.
He gave us ancient Athens, its monuments, their history and their stories; the Arch of Hadrian, the gateway to the benevolent Emperor’s new Roman Athens; the mighty Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest in the ancient world, begun by Peisistratus and completed by Hadrian 700 years later; the beautiful marble Panathinaikon Stadium, built in the 4th century, where the first modern Olympics took place in 1896; the Acropolis, with the ruins of the “glory that was Greece” – the architecturally perfect Parthenon, the sanctuary and the theatre of Dionysus, birthplace of drama, the theatre of Herodeion, home of the annual Athens festival, the Agora, the political, commercial and religious centre of the ancient city; the high slippery limestone rock of Mars Hill, once Athens’ highest court, where St Paul first preached the Gospel in AD 51 and the cemetery of Kerameikos, the oldest and largest in Attica. He gave us the capricious gods, the mighty kings and the super heroes who shaped this great city.
Next post; Cosmo's Athens, Part 2; Modern Athens and Mount Hymettus
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