“At archaeology school, we were told that if you squeeze a myth hard enough, you can extract at least one piece of historical truth,” our guide, Eva Koureta muses, as we kick off our tour.
An awful lot of squeezing goes into the next three hours, as we explore this building that’s been ranked one of the world’s Top Ten museums, thanks to its ground-breaking architecture, design and ancient inventory.
First, we discuss the Acropolis hill’s rich and often brutal history. Invasions come and go in a dizzying blur (Persian, Roman, Ottoman, Venetian…). Each time, the structure that topped the Sacred Rock—as it’s known to Greeks—was flattened or pillaged. Or both.
We talk kingship, aristocracy, tyranny and, finally, democracy until we get to Pericles, the visionary statesman who reconstructed Athens after the 5th century BC Persian invasion. It was Pericles who added a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena—and so many of the other structures we marvel at today. Or rather tonight.