After studying the Acropolis hill from my youth hostel across the way,
I had one of those flashes of impulse that only a mountain goat should sanely entertain.
I decided to climb the hill and save the entrance fee!
All I had to do was walk up that slope and follow the wall to the far side
where I could easily jump over and onto the Acropolis grounds.
Yeah, right...
Three hours later,
I heard an accordion faraway playing
Zorba the Greek
.
As I write this, there is an attic or a landfill somewhere containing a half corroded polaroid
of some agitated pissant hugging the outside of the Acropolis wall on a bright sunny day.
Somewhere, somehow, I found a place to catapult myself over the wall
right into the entrance area
where I shelled out my 1000 drachmae like everyone else.
The gods did not look favorably upon freeloaders — unless your name was Socrates.
Sent a postcard back home to Howie
Each culture embeds its theology in its architecture.
Compare the Parthenon to the
Pyramids
![](images/621-egypt_society_pyramid.gif)
with their pharoah god at the top and their slaves at the bottom —
the perfect expression of hierarchical society and its subsequent afterlife.
Good luck, however, trying to dig into a pyramid to visit their gods, closed off in eternal darkness;
whereas the Parthenon is open to all with easy access to a large interior space where
gods 30 feet tall
![](images/621-Athena_LeQuire.jpg)
can hang out and answer your prayers.
Later in the afternoon, took a small boat named Mimikal to Mykonos.
Had to pay for passage. No room to stowaway.
Mumbled a short prayer for safety past
Poseidon
![](images/621-sounion2.jpg)
in his temple as we rounded Cape Sounion.
At Mykonos, where
Zeus
![](images/621-mykonos.jpg)
fought the Titans,
took a larger boat through the night to Patmos Island.
What revelations lay waiting?