The Last Hoof

Today was the last scheduled excursion of the semester. We hoofed it through the city of Athens for almost an hour an a half in an unseasonable warm snap, first stopping at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and ending at the ancient Kerameikos cemetery.

Corner view Temple of Olympian Zeus

The odd thing about the Temple of Olympian Zeus is that we pass it almost every day. It's close to the classroom, on the way to the Plaka district of restaurants, shopping, and clubs. In the shadow of the Parthenon and from the far side of the fence, it didn't look particularly special. Perhaps familiarity bred contempt in this situation. But on today's excursion, we actually went inside the fence and came face-to-face with an edifice that is much more impressive than we've given it credit for during the past three months.

Fallen column

The Temple of Olympian Zeus is twice as big as the Parthenon, and four times as big as the Temple of Aphaia we visited on the island of Aegina. It took 300 years to complete, having been begun by Peristratus the Younger, but not finished until the Roman rule of Emperor Hadrian. The Roman influence explains the Corinthian columns (note the fancy acanthus leaves at the top). Greeks never went in much for the Corinthian style, preferring the cleaner lines of the Doric and Ionic styles. But the Romans, those overwrought Italians, embraced Corinthian style.

Thanks to the earthquakes ubiquitous in Greece and a greedy bishop who burned the marble for church-building plaster, very few of the original 104 columns now stand. One column was dramatically felled into the sausage slices of its column drums during a storm in 1852.

Side view Temple of Olympian Zeus

It's fitting that on this, our last official hoof through the city, we see an ancient Greek monument in our own backyard with new eyes.