A very fashionable friend of mine was vacationing in Greece last month, and crafted a special laurel-leaf headdress from gold foil to wear when he visited the Acropolis. He looked godly in it, so much so that the security guards at the Parthenon asked him to take it off to honor the sacred nature of the site. Another thing the authorities might want to do, if they’re so concerned, is to protect the building properly while it’s being restored.
My friend’s photos captured the timeless appeal of the Acropolis buildings, showing piles of bleached stone against a dazzling blue sky, on a cliff high above the city. They also showed how vulnerable the Parthenon, the site’s chief attraction, is. Right now there are two construction cranes inside it, a web of steel scaffolding running through it, and, all around it, in post-apocalyptic disarray, piles of rubble and cut stone, scraps of ornamental sculpture, and three melon-sized canon balls from what looks like a nineteenth-century military attack. All these things are lying around unmarked, untagged, and uncovered, giving the place the feeling of a sunny junkyard. I remember a devastating piece 60 Minutes aired six months before the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004, which showed sheep grazing in the field where the new stadium would be. A spokesman for the Greeks explained cheerfully that this was “the Greek way,” to work without too much anxiety and bring everything together at the end. I hope there’s a similar magic guiding this project.
Photo by Robert Quadrini