Thank God for the Destruction of the Parthenon
I took a short set of flights (24 hours of travelling) to Greece and some of her islands recently. Fantastic place to visit. While in Athens, we saw all of the sites. The focal point was the Acropolis and specifically the Parthenon.
The Where's Waldo outfit was because my wife refused to tell me where we were going until I got to the airport. So I put it on for different photo's for my friends on Facebook. We saw it up close too.
But what does this have to do with TA right? At the New Acropolis Museum I learned the history of the Acropolis. It's pretty much done in a video that is very similar to the one that I'm about to link to. The Story of the Acropolis is occupation and destruction, then rebuild, then destruction. In 400 AD, Christians over ran the Parthenon. Immediately they removed and destroyed the faces of the Gods so that they wouldn't violate the first commandment. The entire outside of the edifice was the story of their gods leading up to them choosing Athena over Poseidon. All nudity was destroyed. They had conquered a nation and rather than seeking to change it's ways, they pissed on a beautiful marvel. They eventually erected a cross and then the Franks turned it into a church. After that the Ottmans turned it into a Mosque with a minaret and all.
Religion is so destructive. Not only socially, but in the scope of history. 1600 years after religion got it's hands on a marvel of the world, the Greeks are still trying to rebuild it. This is what a secular society will do. Personally it's against the religion of most Greeks to rebuild this place. They are making idols. Nevertheless, their collective history is more important to them. What religion tears down, Secularism can re-build.
I don't know how long it will take to rebuild it, but I'll look forward to taking my children to see it one day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zipwMKJhUyM&feature=mfu_in_order...
New Embed issues...
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Comment by Blondin on June 10, 2011 at 2:43pm -
Lovely. I've just returned from Turkey where I learned similar histories about places like the Aya Sophia, Heirapolis, Apollo's Temple, Aphrodisias, etc. Those Romans left a lot of ruins laying around.
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Comment by Gaytor on June 10, 2011 at 2:44pm -
Interesting. Would you let them do anything to keep the status quo so it doesn't crumble any more?
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Comment by Steve on June 10, 2011 at 2:50pm -
Most of the destruction there actually happened in the course of a war in the 17th century when they turned the building into a powder magazine
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Comment by Gaytor on June 10, 2011 at 2:53pm
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The structural stuff on the sides, sure. I suppose that is true for the interior building that was there too. But the art and statues damage belongs to the Christians.
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Comment by Arcus on June 10, 2011 at 3:52pm -
"I don't know how long it will take to rebuild it"
Probably a while... ;)
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Comment by oneinfinity on June 10, 2011 at 3:55pm -
heh, check this out: Scene Showing Orthodox Defacement of Parthenon Cut from Museum Film
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Comment by oneinfinity on June 10, 2011 at 4:01pm
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from ancientgreece.com on the Parthenon:
"After the looting by the Roman Emperors the building itself was still intact and was turned into a church in the 5th Century AD by the Christians. The Byzantine Christians converted the Parthenon in honour of Parthena Maria (Virgin Mary), or the Church of the Theotokos (Mother of God), which it remained for around 250 years. Turning the temple into a church meant that the building was still kept in good condition apart from a bit a restructuring internally; for example a few of the columns were removed as well as some of the marble statues. It also meant that statues and other motifs depicting more than one god were either removed or destroyed."
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Comment by Gaytor on June 10, 2011 at 4:30pm
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That's a good find on the video. The only differences were the Greek audio track that explains it with english subtitles.
No kids yet, so it certainly a down the road plan to getting back there.
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