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Henri Jean (Ocala, Florida)
September 26, 2014

Athens, Greece - Page 3

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Sunday – May 5th – I can't believe we woke up in Athens, Greece this morning! We knew a lot of places would be closed because today is the Greek Orthodox Easter, but still, there is a lot we want to see and tomorrow we will be here most of the day to see the things that were closed today.

We got off the bus and walked to the Temple of Zeus to take pictures.

We loved exploring the little shopping district with cobblestone streets lined with cute little shops and trendy boutiques. Bill bought me a darling Greek-style loose-fitting dress which is a bright fuchsia-rose color and several post cards for my scrapbook.

We both had sunburned faces from the past few days and after today we are both even redder! Bill's face will be nicely tanned in a day or two but my red face will just peel. Not fair.

Back on the ship that evening we did okay at trivia but were not winners. My big contribution was that I knew the answer to, “Who was George Jetson's boss?” I actually knew it was Mr. Spacely . It never ceases to amaze me how much useless trivial nonsense I have stored in my brain.

Another question I got correctly for my team – “What do you call a person who writes trivia contests?” My correct answer was, “A spermologist.” No one believed me but no one had a better answer so they went with it and we got it right!

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Just in front of the Temple of Zeus is Hadrians Arch which was erected in honor of the Roman emperor, Hadrian. The Arch was built in AD 131 and used as a symbol to mark the boundary between ancient Athens and the new modern Roman city of Hadrian.

An inscription on the western side of the arch (facing the Acropolis) states: This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus." An inscription on the eastern side of the arch (facing the Olympieion) states: "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".



The Temple Of Olympian Zeus was once the largest temple in Greece, dwarfing even the Parthenon on the Acropolis.

Work began on the Temple of Zeus in the 6th century BC by the tyrant Peisistrates, but was not completed until hundreds of years later by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132 AD. He dedicated the temple to Zeus (known to the Romans as Jupiter), the king of the Gods.

Inside the temple Hadrian had a huge ivory and gold inlaid statue of the God Zeus made, a replica of the one at Olympia by Pheidas. In true Roman style he had a equally large statue of himself made and placed next to the one of Zeus. Unfortunately both are now lost. Nothing remains of these or anything else from the interior of the temple. It is not known when the building was destroyed but, like many large buildings in Greece, it was probably brought down by an earthquake during the medieval peeriod and the bulk of its ruins taken away for building materials.

The temple was once the most magnificent in Greece, but with years of neglect and vandalism, all that is left are 15 columns of the original 104, one still sprawled across the floor after it fell down in 1852 after a storm. It is still lying where it fell.

Each column is 56ft high and the temple itself was about 315 ft long and 130 ft wide.


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