In the land of the gods

To understand Greece is to understand its history — and its mythology. Your first thought is that it is easy to separate the two — the gods were not real, the kings and the warriors were, but Greek mythology, history, classical literature and archeological evidence are so intertwined that it is not always a simple task to the foreigner to tell where the fantastic stories end and history begins.   

If you grew up reading Homer and then you come to mainland Greece and visit places where real kings worshipped the gods, the experience is both immeasurably fascinating and a little confusing.

For here are real stone temples, some of their pillars still standing through thousands of years, and stone paths where the kings’ emissaries set on foot to beseech the gods and gain their favor. These were gods that cavorted with goddesses, nymphs, and mortals, producing children with various levels of powers or none at all.

In Greece, you hear stories of Persian and Turkish savagery, hundreds of years of occupation by various empires, philosophy and democracy — alongside stories of the gods eating their children, sending another one to be chained to the ends of the earth where every single night an eagle would peck away at his flesh and eat his liver only for it to grow back, and the torture would begin again the next morning.  

The story where we begin our discovery of Greece is that of a goddess born from the forehead of the most powerful one of all.

Zeus — the CEO of the gods if you will (but also more like an auditor because he kept the balance of the universe) — was married to Hera but he was…well, mythology’s biggest playboy. He loved beautiful goddesses, nymphs, mortals—and one of them was named Metis. Her parents told him that he would have a daughter wiser than he and a son that could steal his throne. What does Zeus do? Does he shrug and dismiss the warnings of Metis’s parents? (He is, after all, the most powerful of the gods!) Does he send a bolt of lightning to strike them dead? No, he swallows Metis!

But it was too late. Poor Metis, now inside his belly, had already conceived, so Zeus asked Prometheus to split his head open with an axe, and out came Athena from her father’s forehead carrying a spear.

Welcome to Athens, the city of Athena, one of the 12 gods of Olympus.

She is the goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts. She has a shield, a spear, an olive tree, a distaff and an owl — and a capital city named after her in one of the world’s most fascinating countries.

Athens might have been named differently if Athena had lost the contest against Poseidon for what we call today “naming rights.” Poseidon struck his trident and water gushed from the earth, Athena stamped her foot on the ground and the first olive tree sprung up—I mean, really, who would you have chosen as your city’s patron?

I am hearing bits and pieces of these myths on an Insight tour with a group of travel agents and four other journalists, and reading them from books on Greek mythology. The Philippine representatives made the easy hop to Athens on Etihad Airways, connecting in Abu Dhabi, and meeting the various participants from Southeast Asia in Athens.

We are on a tour that Insight aptly calls “Glories of Greece,” five full days of journey through mainland Greece that begins and ends in Athens. In between Athens are Ancient Greece’s most important cities, including Mycenae, Nafplio, Olympia, Delphi (the center of the Ancient World), and Meteora.  

Our Insight tour director Sabrina Tsimonidis of Siva Travel Services has been a tour director and guide for 23 years, the first five with a cruise company and the last 17 with Siva.

“When Greeks couldn’t explain something, they would come up with a story,” she says as she tells the story of how Prometheus’ liver regenerates every night after he was punished by Zeus for giving humans the gift of fire so they could keep warm. “These stories always have a point, they deal with dilemmas and choices, and so we have gods that are like humans facing moral issues, gods that behave badly and justly.”  

Athens is a modern, bustling city with a fantastic nightlife, countless restaurants where they do traditional dancing and throw plates on the floor to tell you to enjoy the moment, quieter bistros and happening clubs frequented by locals. Athens is all this but without the overwhelming density of most capital cities.

Athens is home to Athena’s Parthenon, Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, and the stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were held.

In Classical Greece, it was one of the most powerful and richest city-states; in modern Greece, it suffers one of the worst reputations due to the riots and protests when the economic crisis began. But this reputation is largely due to media coverage and not unfamiliar to Filipinos living in Manila where travel bans are issued by embassies and we wonder, where is the urban unrest they are talking about?

It was the same thing in Athens in recent years but the city and the whole country are now rebounding with a 30- percent rise in tourism numbers, according to Sabrina. “We used to have people coming here and asking, where is all the fighting and the battling? Some western countries would not insure travelers if they were going to Greece because the media was so negative and people were cancelling tours and because they thought we were so desperate for money. But this season, we are seeing an increase in numbers and Greece is coming back as a destination.”

We catch Athens in the middle of January, a low season for tourists in Europe in general, and enjoy the mild winter. It doesn’t really get below 10 degrees Celsius, but in the summer we are told that it can reach up to 40 and above.

Our Athens guide Sandra takes us to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus at the foot of the Acropolis. How wonderful, you think, that Athena’s Parthenon is on top of the hill and her father’s — the king of the Olympian gods! — is down below. That’s what you’d call bragging rights.

Our group, of which about 98 percent are first-time visitors to Greece, is amazed at the ruins. It took about 638 years to build Zeus’ Temple and a hundred years later it was ruined and pillaged and the stone was used for other “projects,” but you can still imagine how magnificent it was standing with its Corinthian columns, some of which are still there today.

Sandra walks us up to the Acropolis and this is where Athens is very clever — it reveals its ancient history in a way that surprises you literally every step of the way. We haven’t even seen the Parthenon on top and are already awestruck by the views of Athens from halfway up. The city looks monochromatic, as do the temples on the Acropolis, but there is evidence to suggest that the statues and friezes “were once in Technicolor,” says our guide.

There are several temples on the Acropolis, several Parthenons, in fact, that have been destroyed, burned down and then rebuilt. The Parthenon ruins we know today were rebuilt during the Golden Age of Athens in 460 to 430 BC under the rule of Pericles.  Sandra shows us what archeologists thought the statue of Athena looked like: 13 meters tall and made of gold, silver and ivory. She is holding a pomegranate on her right hand as a symbol of peace and a helmet on her left as a symbol of war.

“Athens is peaceful,” she seemed to say, “but don’t you dare mess with her.” But mess with Athens they did — in the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was dedicated to the Virgin Mary; in the Ottoman period, it was used as a gunpowder warehouse and was severely damaged during the siege by the Venetians.

Today, about 21 archeological sites are identified on the Acropolis, including several sanctuaries and altars, and restoration that began in 1975 is still ongoing. 

The first reminder I get of Athens being the birthplace of the Modern Olympic Games is a glass sculpture situated on a rotunda. I am sitting in a taxi when my eyes suddenly catch something glinting in the afternoon sun.

Then we come around the street and I see what it really is: a giant statue of a runner made from dark-green stacked glass by Costas Varotsos called “Dromeas” or “The Runner.” It sits on the busy Omonia Square and marathons held in Athens pass through this square. When it was first installed, locals supposedly didn’t like it much and called it “The Thing.” The Greeks’ initial attitude holds true for many abstract modern works of art in other cities — like the massive steel sculpture “Angel of the North” by Anthony Gromley in Gateshead, England, or even the skylight pyramids of IM Pei in the Louvre.

The first Modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896 at the Panathenaic Stadium, which had been used in ancient times when it was made of wood.

Sabrina tells us that the games were held in honor of Athena and marathon was one of the original Modern Olympic events. The name comes from the story of the Greek messenger who ran from Marathon to Athens to tell of  their victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

It’s said that he ran without stopping and upon announcing, “We won,” he dropped dead.

Fortunately there isn’t going to be such a dramatic exit on this tour, though the shopping street Plaka in the old district of Athens might exhaust hardcore shoppers. It is a pedestrian street that fronts Syntagma Square and farther down the street you can see the Parthenon perched on the Acropolis. Many tourists take the train from the Athens airport and either alight from Syntagma Square or  Monastiraki station.  

Plaka is an area filled with mid-range brands, from Zara to Promod, H&M and local brands. We discover a delicatessen selling gourmet snacks, plain and infused olive oils from Kalamata, and sweets. There are traditional restaurants, bistros and bars and you can hear cheers of “oppa!” and plates being smashed on the floors as you walk through this old part of Athens.

If you get lost, just ask the locals for direction, like I did.

As Sabrina says,  “Greeks are very warm. They want to show people that we have a lot to offer.”

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Rajah Travel Corporation, the GSA of Insight Tours in the Philippines, is participating in the Travel Tour Expo on Feb. 14 to 16 at SMX, Mall of Asia. Their booths are located on the ground floor, 327-330/335-338, and second floor, Function Room 5-45, 46.

Rajah is offering 12.5-percent discount for Insight Vacations, Uniworld and Contiki Holidays.

Call their Manila office 523-8801, fax 521-8304, e-mail intltoursmnl1@rajahtravel.com. Call their Makati office at 894-0886, fax 817-7903, e-mail intltoursmkt@rajahtravel.com. Follow/like them on facebook.com/RajahTravelCorporation, twitter.com/rajahtravel_com, instagram.com/rajahtravel_com.