Greece: Then and Now, Part 2
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| Mary Wakefield Buxton |
by Mary Wakefield Buxton
Urbanna, Va.— “We have made enough cuts!” our tour guide shouted and we Americans on our tour bus visiting the ruins of Athens kept quiet. The Greeks have faced 20% cuts in salaries, pensions and benefits. That can’t be pleasant. The Greeks are suffering so much in a nation that has simply run out of money, has 16-20% unemployment (depending on who’s doing the accounting) and Papandreou had just called for a referendum in January on the ECU mandate of further cuts. The people were furious. They blamed the politicians for the mess they were in. Voters seldom blame themselves.
The country was in turmoil, the stock markets worldwide had tumbled and we had just learned there will be a communist “demonstration” in front of our hotel that evening, but not to worry because if things “turn ugly” we would be barricaded inside and skirted out the back door for the airport. Oh good, a calm, relaxing day in Athens to enjoy the beautiful sights of the past (with an occasional jab from the present) was just what I wanted. Our party from Virginia was caught on stage in a scene none of us wanted to witness.
Each morning I rode to the top floor of the Grand Bretagne Hotel to have breakfast overlooking the majestic Acropolis and Parthenon, which literally shimmers in the morning sunshine. I was happy to be in Greece in spite of the tensions. Today I would walk the same street as Lord Byron and see the hotel where he had once penned “Childe Harold.” Soon after, he joined the war to help Greece win independence. The Greeks appreciated him so much they named a street after him.
I didn’t feel like writing poems, however. Nor fighting any wars. I grieved not only for the Greeks as their modern tragedy was unfolding before my eyes, but also from my aches from climbing the Acropolis and exploring the Parthenon and the brand new magnificent Acropolis Museum earlier in the day. The museum had glass floors that proudly displayed three stories of ruins. It was fascinating to see evidence of Athenians’ bath tubs, sewer pipes, and central heating in their homes, illustrating their advanced standard of living before the birth of Christ. Even intricate mosaic tile floors had been excavated to show Athenians had lived in beauty and style.
We learned the Parthenon had been built in honor of the Greek goddess Athena. An election had been held between her and the God the men wanted, Poseidon. Athena had won simply because there had been more women than men. The men were so angry the women had won the vote they stripped women of their right to vote and Greek women did not vote again for almost 2,000 years—at the end of World War II. (Ladies, take seriously your rights in the West and defend your rights like a lioness with cubs. You never know how long you will have even the right to vote and, remember, once you leave the Western World your rights evaporate.)
At the Parthenon we could look down the stark marble cliffside at the seating of Dionysus Stadium, which could seat 5,000, still in very good condition all these centuries later, and wonder at all the famous Greek tragedies that were presented here. I remembered a bit part of a slave I played at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in the Greek play “Bacchus,” where I spoke my lines to fellow student, Mary Lib Hoinkes, who was playing a Greek soldier. God only knows what I said all these years later, but I still have appreciation of classic Greek playwrights.
Next we headed for the Panathenaic Stadium rebuilt in 1890 as an exact replica of the original Olympic stadium built 1,800 years ago on the site. Built entirely of marble, the stadium holds 65,000. One can stand in the center and imagine the marathon races by the Greeks and then the gladiator fights by the conquering Romans, then the conquering Turks (Greece was ruled for 400 years by the Turks). The stadium still utilizes the tunnels used by the Romans and that once brought wild animals into the stadium. The drain system also is still in use, proving what good engineers the Greeks were.
A tour of the Zeus temple built in honor of the chief Greek God (later, when the Romans conquered Greece it was renamed Jupiter Temple in honor of the major Roman God) and larger than the Parthenon indicated clearly what happens when a country is defeated. Of the original 104 massive Corinthian columns, only 16 were left, 15 still standing and one lying on the ground. Where had all the columns gone? The Turks had conquered Greece later on and taken them to use the marble for their God. History teaches a universal rule: stay strong or . . . lose everything.
(To be continued)
