Athens
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Athens is peerless among the existing monuments of the ancient civilised world. The ruins of Rome may be more gorgeous ; of Babylon, more mysterious ; of Persepolis, more romantic ; of the Egyptian Thebes, more vast; but in all that is interesting to thought and feeling - in memories and associations, deep, affecting, sublime, Athens transcends them all." --The Antiquities of Athens |
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The city of Athens (Αθηνα), named after the goddess Athena, is the capital of Greece. For many years during the 1st millennium BC, it existed as a sovereign city-state, as did every Greek city of the time. Athens was home to one of the earliest recorded formal democracies. Its most notable achievements during this era include the leadership of a powerful alliance (the Delian League), and the refinement of Greek philosophy.
The city sits on a small, southeast-facing peninsula east of the Isthmus of Corinth, known as Attica. This peninsula was first consolidated under Athenian control during the early Greek Archaic Age. The land is relatively flat and arable, but also rocky and of marginal fertility. The ancient site of the city is centered on a rocky hill called the Acropolis, a little way inland. In ancient times, Athens' port was located in the outlying settlement of Piraeus, but it has now been absorbed into the city.
See also
- The Antiquities of Athens
- Athenian democracy
- Parthenon
- Acropolis of Athens
- Classical Greece
- Democracy
- Hellenic civilization
- Peloponnesian War
- Age of Pericles
- Greco-Persian Wars
- National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
