Last stop...birth place of Democracy...Pnyx.Oct 21, 2009
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On the way to Pynx Hill we find the prison were Socrates...
View of Lycabettus Hill and the Acropolis from the Pnyx.
Ben in front of Orator's Bema, where speakers would present thier ideas...
Today we made a special trip to the Pnyx, the location of the first legislative assembly, basically the birth place of democracy. This was a special trip because the anciant Greek democracy is part of Benjamin's grade 6 social program. Here the ideas that all citizens (all in the older sence of all....no women, not kids, no outsiders, must be born Athenian, must have parents born Athenian etc...) Anyway, this is where all citizens had the right to be heard and to voice opinions. Benjamin had to review his Social unit but that is not something for most of you nor for our memories. However, I did include the information on the Pynx for any of Ben's classmates who are interested in impressing their teacher that they know so much more than what is listed in the textbook.
I found two things quite fascinating.
One, that the Pynx was not used for these democratic assemblies for very long, it may be the first place but within a hundered years it was moved to the Theater of Dionysos just at the bottom of the Acropolous.
Two, it was "discovered" in 1835. You may not know this, but there are three big hills here. One has the parthanon on it, one has a church on it and the third...well even if it was all tree covered, the trees on rocks are small and rocks don't grow much covering so...did no Athenean bother to go up the third hill or is this the British Museums way of claiming that they found it so they get all the best ruines. On a side note, at the British Museum they address the idea that they house some of the best artifacts in the world. The British Museum has pamplets that discuss this and they make three points, one that the other museums in these countries are not good enough and second that the other museums are not popular enough and third, a long eloquent version of finders keepers loosers weepers. Here in Athens they make a big deal of the New Acroplois Museum as a claim that their museum is good enough and to say it is popular they have a foolishly low price, family of four for 2 Euros..yes two Euros.
Tomorrow, Rome.
