Off The Beaten Path

The Corinthian Channel

The Corinthian Channel was the next stop. All of 15-20 minutes. It connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf.

All this time, I was under the impression that this was an ancient thing, somehow connected to ancient wars. Glorious wars, with songs of ancient heroes. But no, this was built between 1881 and 1893. Relatively modern history, I must say.

It seems, however, that many ancients did dream of making this channel, starting with the tyrant Periander, in the 7th Century BC. Nero tried it, and so did the Romans. None succeeded, leaving it to us modern folk with our modern engineering technology, to fulfill the dreams of our parents.

The dreams of the fathers, they say, are often visited upon their children. And, in some cases, like this one, we fulfill the dreams pretty well. Very cool!!

I walked up and down the bridge. I took a few pictures, thought of climbing down but, abandoned the idea. In any case, we had no time. So, I did the touristy thing of walking into the nearby CD store, and bought a few CDs of Greek music. We then moved on to the next stop...

Temple of Zeus. Athens

I am going to ask myself, what I hope, is a dumb question. Are there two temples dedicated to Zeus? One at Athens and one at Olympia? I assume, of course, that Athens and Olympia are two different places.  I think that they are.

The Temple of Zeus at Athens is the one that I visited, after our visit to the Acropolis at Athens. It was a hot afternoon. Beautiful, blue skies. And, the ruins of the temple, with the hills and the city in the background represented a melancholy sight. The temple had a long and sorry history. It was started in the 6th Century BC, and completed in the 2nd Century AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. It was then duly pillaged in the 3rd Century AD, and fell into disuse.

15 of the original 105 columns remain standing, and the 16th lies collapsed on the ground. Designed to be a tribute to the most supreme of the Greek Gods, it never really lived up to the promise. Maybe, the God himself was not satisfied, which is why it took so long to build, and why it was pillaged so soon afterwards.

It reminds me of the current day Birla business empire. Birla is the name of the family. As per the story, the Birla family has to be working on the construction of a temple, any temple, every day. Failing which, the business empire will collapse.

Well, as George Harrison sang, "All Things Must Pass". As did the days of the people who constructed the Temple of Zeus. As will the Birla Empire. Transcience is the name of the game.

Hard disks are notoriously unreliable, which is why even these photos will not last centuries.

Taking photos in the afternoon is not a great thing to do, unless it is late afternoon, and the rays of slight slant with a warm light. Yet, the light was perfect for the aura of melancholy that I felt that afternoon, as I brooded over the forgotten emperors and people who laboured over the Temple of Zeus.

At The Acropolis of Athens

The Acropolis at Athens is fantastic. I am not going to give a tour guide of the Acropolis. There are millions of these around, and much better than anything I can ever write.

The shot above was that, of some of the statues at the Erecthion. Apparently, this was the site where Poseidon and Athena had a spot of rivalry to decide who would be the patron of the city. Poseidon's  trident caused a spurt of water to spurt. And, when Athena's spear touched the ground, an olive tree sprung up. She won, and Athens is named after her! So now I know the origins of one of the truly fantastic cities in the world.

June is the wrong month to climb up to the Acropolis, unless you are climbing up early in the morning or, late in the evening. I was a puddle of sweat by the time I reached the top. Yet the place was teeming with tourists, all sweating like me. I am Indian, and people normally assume that I would be used to the heat. Yet, I don't like hot weather. I can't stand hot weather and, Athens can get really hot in the summer months.

When I look back on the pictures that I took that day, I realize that they were not such great shots. Which, is a tragedy. A lesson. Photography can never be a rush job. It can never be an activity undertaken when you are cribbing about the heat.

Like all things, mystical or otherwise, greatest achievement is possible only when you are immersed in the act that you forget everything else.

For me, I am pretty sure that the people who built the Acropolis were so totally immersed in their art that they forgot everything else. The result is a monument of lasting beauty.