To see what's missing from the actual Parthenon you need to go to London. Thank you Lord Elgin. He stripped the Parthenon of sculptures, sawing them right off the building. These are in the British Museum now. They should be in theis gorgeous, modern building, the Acropolis Museum. A stunning building by Bernard Tschumi. It was built in 2009 and is intended to seduce the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum. It sits on top of ruins, visible through the glass floor in the entryway.
The ramp houses cases full of artifacts from the slopes leading to the Parthenon.
These detailed sculptures show what the west and east pediment statues would have looked like in their prime. The west one shows the contest to determine who the city would be named after. Poseidon and Athena competed with gifts to the city. Poisedon brought forth a saltwater spring, and Athena produced an olive tree. She was deemed the winner, and the city was named after her. An olive tree still stands on the top of the Acropolis.
The top level of the museum is walled in glass, providing spectacular views of everything.
The interior of the top level showcases the 525 foot frieze that once wrapped the Parthenon. It shows the procession held in honor of Athena. The Grand Panathenaia circles the room, with many parts missing, and other parts (cast in white) that are in the British Museum (and conspicuously labeled "BM").
It is a short walk from the museum to the Theater of Dionysus. There has been some kind of theater on this site under the Acropolis since the 6th century BC. In the 5th century, plays by Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were performed here. The current stone seating and stage were reconstructed between 342 and 326 BC for a crowd of 17,000. Twenty of the original 64 tiers still survive. We can also still see the surviving the front row of 67 thrones, reserved for VIPs.
We ended a pleasant day with a wonderful meal of grilled meat (a serving for one that easily fed three), "small fish" (from the anchovie family), a simple salad drizzled with olive oil, bread and tzatziki, and a bottle of red wine that our waiter said if we didn't like, he would drink for us. He was not called into service for that.
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