The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-06-13
prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington. ID. CT


IN ECALLlNG its century of mod
ern independence and its thou
IN sands of years of glorious men,
cries, Greece is celebrating its
centennial. The republic of today has
an area of approximately $4,000
square miles and a population of some
100000. But the memories of past
Slories cling chiefly to the Plain of
Attica, surrounded by its hills, with
ATHENS, the eye of Greece" as its
center.
To every one sensitive to historical
suggestion, to every one to whom
beauty makes the supreme appeal, the
first sight of this immortal city be-
comes the moment of a lifetime.
To the right rises Hymettus, famed
now, as in ancient days, for the honey
which the bees rifle from its flowers
10 the left, and nearer, the island of
Salamis, with its deathless memories;
a bowshot away, Psyttalia, where Ar
istides and his band cut down the
flower of Persian chivalry, after the
naval battle Of Salamis; still farther
10 the left, the ranges of Parnes, ex-
tending in a full, voluptuous curve to-
ward the east.
AS one looks closer, the city reveals
itself more clearly and, out-topping all,
the AcrOpolis, with the Parthenon as
its diadem. In its still beauty, its ma
jesty and its tenderness, the scene has
u vague unreality.
1t is a tiny country, this heart of
Greece. The Attic plain stretches
from the sea in an irregular oval from
south to north; the entire province
contains bare 700 square miles.
Yet Attica balances in the universe
the glory of Imperial Rome" Re
member well, Quintius," writes Cicero
10 his friend, that you have command
over the Greeks, who have civilized all
peoples, in teaching them gentleness
and humanity, and to whom Rome
owes the light she possesses" Cicero,
of course, meant Attica, for it was in
this little country that what we call
the Greek genius was most effectively
at work in the Fifth century before
Christ.
Moments of the Past.
When the visitor fares forth in
Athens the past beckons to him. One
of the first classic monuments his eyes
are likely to rest upon is the Arch of
Hadrian. This emperor, it will be re-
called, was one of the principal bene-
factors of Athens in the value and
character of his gifts. These en-
braced a water supply, reservoir
which is in use today, library, and
perhaps the Temple to Olympian Zeus.
He also built the new city beyond the
old one, and the arch marked the di-
viding line between the Greek and
Roman towns.
Passing through the arch and turn
ing to the right, one enters the pre-
cincts of the Temple of Zeus. The
temple, like the buildings on the
Acropolis, is of Pentelic marble, to
which time has given an exquisite
golden brown color, especially on the
side which faces the sea. Two of the
columns stand detached like sentinels
and by a happy accident close the
three-mile tangent formed by the
Syngros avenue, which links up mod
ern Athens with it's little seaside re-
sort, PhalerOn.
One can trace his steps through the
Arch of Hadrian by a narrow street
known as the Street of Lysicrates
which is probably the site of the an
cient Street of the Tripods.
In the age of Pericles, apart from
the athletic contests which took place
at the Olympic and other games. there
were contests in oratory, in poetry,
and in music. At Athens the victor
In one Of these games was given brass
tripod, with the privilege of erecting
a pedestal on which to place it, some
where in the city.
At the end of the little street stands,
in almost pristine loneliness, perhaps
the only surviving monument Of this
character. 1t is the exquisite little
structure-the oldest extant-erected
by an Athenian, Lysicrates, on which
to place the tripod awarded him as the
a
which won a prize in vocal music in
one of the games in the Fourth CEN
fury B. c.
This little structure was built into
a convent in medieval times and was
thus preserved from destruction. The
convent was standing in Byron's day
and he was a guest there in 1911; it
was not until some years later that
the monument was restored at the ex-
pense of the French government.
Theater of Dionysus.
1t is but stones throw from the
Monument Of Lysicrates to the Thea
ter of Dionysus-of Bacchus, to give
it it's Roman name.
Like most Greek theaters, the tiers
of seats are built into the hillside,
while its arrangement is such that
the spectators viewing the actors had
in the distance the sea; so that as
tragedy, Tin specter'd pail, came
sweeping by" there was ever present
to the eye an expanse of land and wa
ter to heighten the effect produced by
the action OF the play.
And what names this place calls up