It was a national holiday in Greece today, so I had a day off. The Acropolis ticket that I bought a couple of weeks ago includes free entrance to several other sites, so I decided to go visit the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos. It was a vale of peace in the metropolis: to walk amidst the olive and cyprus trees and the ancient ruins, in the greenery, listening to the birds, watching white butterflies play in the mellow, warm air... I could hear the traffic in the nearby streets but all the same the peace was such that the ancient cemetery really felt like a sanctuary.
The Kerameikos museum houses some of the impressive pieces of Attic funerary sculpture art of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., which survived until the last decade of the 4th century, when the tyrant of Athens, Demetrios of Phaleron, passed a law forbidding excessive spending on the grave monuments. This particular work of art moved me deeply. It is the grave relief of Ampharete, from 430-420 BC, and the inscription above the relief says, approximately: "Here I hold the beloved child of my daughter, which I held on my knees when we were alive and saw the light of the sun, and now in death I hold it, dead."
From the Kerameikos I decided to go to the Syntagma square and take the tram to the seaside in Palaio Faliro, a trip that takes about 45 minutes due to the many stops. The metro would be faster but the tram allows seeing much more of Athens. Faliro is located next to Pireus on the seaside. In the antiquity the area was called Phaleron - the above-mentioned tyrant was from there - and had the harbour of Athens before Pireus took that role. How I wish I had packed a swimsuit when leaving Finland! I had to settle for walking along the shore, marvelling at the immensity of the open sea and the straight line of the sea's horizon. I picked some beautiful, white stones, hewn smooth by the waves, to take home as a keepsake.This is probably my last blog update in Greece: there are two whole days left, and then on saturday evening I'm flying back to Finland. Of course, there will be lots and lots of pictures to post back home.
2 comments:
It is warm enough to swim? Sure sounds like a perfect quiet day. I bet there will be lots more photos to follow after you return home. :)
Lovely post Maria. Sorry I'm late here, but it was worth the wait - for me anyway. I like your description of the cemetery and the peace you found there. The reliefs are beautiful. I still find it awesom (and I mean that) to see such ancient works of art and to find them so beautifully sculpted. Incredible. I hope you've had a really worthwhile visit, and that the pleasure and the work have combined well.
Post a Comment