Athens and Attica Week 4: Parthenon Frieze, Pallene, Loutsa, Brauron Museum, Porto Rafti, Koroni, Byzantine Icons, Parthenon

Christos Tsagalis joined us for our Epigram seminar this week, giving a talk entitled "Epic and Tragic Diction in Fourth-Century Epitaphs."

On Tuesday, Olga Palagia lectured on the Parthenon frieze at the Acropolis Museum. The four sides of the frieze that once went around the Parthenon are now placed on four walls in the museum. Most of the frieze is a cast because the originals were taken by Lord Elgin to England. The sculptures depict the Panathenaic procession, held every year in honor of Athena. Again, no pictures of my own because none are allowed at the Acropolis Museum, but the one below (from Wikipedia) is of a panel of the original sculpture still held in the British Museum.

Our bus trip Wednesday began at Pallene, where the ancient remains of a wall and temple are scattered throughout a neighborhood.

Our next stop was at the temple of Artemis Tauropolis in Loutsa and a small seaside sanctuary.

View from the sanctuary

Then it was on to Brauron. First, we visited the museum.

After the museum, we had a look at the Sanctuary of Artemis.

Next we had a look (from a distance) at the colossal statue on the island of Porto Raphti. We couldn't get to the island because it has no functioning port.

Our last stop of the day was at Koroni where we hiked up to the top of acropolis to hear Stephanie's report on the site.

On Thursday morning, Mari Georgopoulou of the Gennadeion Library invited us to her presentation on Byzantine Icons. Below is a picture from Wikipedia of one of the icons we talked about, the oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator.

Friday saw us back at the Acropolis and back in the Parthenon, this time paying attention to the building as it now stands, including the tower of the Franks which still has a functioning staircase up to the top.

View from the top of the Frankish tower