Athens and the Acropolis

Athens, center of the Greek culture, is a very antique city. It was built around a high strong square of difficult access, the Acropolis (“high city”), placed in a high hill and fortified during the Mycenaean period.

At the beginning, Athens was governed by one king; then, its government became aristocratic and, latter, democratic. In the Athenian society, the ruder works competed to the slaves; on the other hand, all free men became citizens, with the same wrights; this way, Athens was the most democratic State of the Antiquity.

The most important statesman of the Athenian democracy was Pedicles. He has run the city, since 461 until 429 b. C.  Those years corresponded to the maximum greatness period of Athens; during that time the art and the cultural life reached one incomparable level and the city was embellished with splendid buildings.

 In the year of 480 b. C., when ended the Medes wars, Athens remained in ruins. For its rebuilding, Pedicles projected a grandiose plan; in the year of 470 b. C., the famous sculptor Fikias was nominated as the director of the works of the Acropolis, where numerous buildings were erected that figure among the most perfect creations of art that man produced.

The Propellers gave access to the Acropolis of Athens. They constituted two big porticos, with high columns, to which they arrived thru one staircase. In the small plateau of the hill, it was erected the famous temple of the Parthenon, devoted to Athena Peaks. In front of the temple there was a statue of bronze, work by Fikias that represented the goddess, completely armed, protecting the entire city. The reflexes of the extremity of its lance could be seen from the sea, at a great distance. Near of one of the flanks of the hill it was placed the Erecteyon, with its portico of caryatides; at short distance, it was erected the small temple of the goddess of the victory, Nike.  The Acropolis was the most important point of Athens, but the place where were reunited daily the Athenians was the agora, the public square. There were celebrated the most important political reunions and the most famous philosophers exposed their theories. Possibly, never in history of the world were reunited so many personalities of universal relieve as those that, at that time, were congregated frequently at the Athenian agora. It was the stage of discussions about a good number of ideas that have nourished with prodigality, until nowadays, the European mentality, in distinct levels.