"The Stadium of All Athenians"

I got another early start Thursday morning to go see the Panathenaic stadium before class. Since I'm doing a report on it, I had already researched its history. The location of the stadium, in ancient times, was nothing but a valley between two hills where nude male athletes would race in track events. The original wooden stadium was created in 556 BC but it was not until 329 BC that the actual stadium was built in marble by Lykourgos. The stadium was host to the athletic portion of the Panathenaic games which included religious ceremonies, athletic and cultural events. In ancient times, the athletic portion was nothing but running events and races. During the 2nd century AD, under Roman rule, Herodes, an orator and sophist, sponsored many renovations to the stadium which included changing the stadium from a rectangular shape to the horseshoe shape seen today, rows of marbles seats, a vaulted passage under the stands that leads from the stadium center to the outside and many statues of marble, bronze and gold. At the time, the stadium was one of a kind, unrivaled.

A portrayal of what the stadium is depicted to look like after
Herodes' renovations.

As Christianity spread, so too did the prohibition of the bloody gladiatorial duels and celebrations that the stadium housed. Subsequently, the Panathenaic stadium lost its splendor. It became a reminder of ancient times, as tourists stalked up with their cameras and guidebooks. 

Finally, in 1896, the stadium was given a chance to relive its ancient glory with the first modern Olympic games. And so it was that the glorious but disheveled Panathenaic stadium was renovated once again to be brought to use in modern times and remembered as host to the first modern Olympic games. Now, the Panathenaic stadium is used for special occasions, such as welcoming home soccer heros, or triumphant Olympians. Even to this day, it remains an important part of the Olympic games as the Olympic flame begins its journey every year from the Panathenaic stadium.

Okay, history lesson is over. I promise. Seriously though, this stadium is pretty cool. It, in all of its quiet splendor, sits right on one of the biggest streets in Athens, six lanes of cars going back and forth, surrounded by modern apartments and shrouded in the sounds of honking horns, chiming church bells and yelling pedestrians. In front of it stand hordes of tourists snapping pictures and cheesing but not bothering to go in and experience the long history that is the Panathenaic stadium. I knew better than to pass up an opportunity to experience some of antiquity, so I paid my 1,50 € and entered the stadium just under the high-flying Olympic flag.

Surrounded by the thousands of stands and tons of marble, I stood on the track of the stadium mesmerized at its size and quality, its subtle and symmetrical beauty, the simplicity and detail. It's hard for me to imagine how, in antiquity, people built something so massive using such heavy materials without any sort of machinery. But they did. And with a few renovations, the stadium is still standing in all of its ancient glory.

Not only can you walk around in the stadium, climb the stands and visit the museum, but you can run on the track, where Olympic athletes, ancient and modern, have competed. You can stand on the Olympic podium to receive your medal (Okay, not the real one. I'm guessing the real one is made of a better material than wood...but you get the picture). And you can bet your bottom dollar that I capitalized on this opportunity. 

Okay, so maybe I'm no sprinter...

But I wouldn't mind an Olympic gold in showjumping...

After having my major tourist moment, I climbed the hundreds of steep steps to the top of stand 21 for an amazing view of the acropolis. Athens is so incredible to me. The shocking yet somehow beautiful blend of ancient and modern is so unique and completely characteristic of Athens alone. There I stood, in the 2,500 year old Panathenaic stadium, looking out over modern day Athens, taxis, trains, pedestrians and modern buildings included, with a clear view of the ancient acropolis in the distance, the ancient Temple of Olympian Zeus just three traffic lights away. To my knowledge, there is not another city in the world with such a perfect blend of long history and contemporary life. 

After that amazing view, it was back down to ground level to check out the Olympic museum. This is where I passed through the long, dark tunnel created by Herodes that athletes walked through to go into the stadium, the sound of the crowd of 80,000 echoing off of the walls as their hearts started beating faster, the light at the end slowly growing bigger as they entered the massive stadium that could bring them glory or shame. At the end of the tunnel was an abrupt conversion from ancient stone to modern building as the museum met the end of the tunnel. Here, there were videos from past Olympic games, summer and winter, and further on was a room full of Olympic posters and their corresponding torches, all original. 

It may sound ridiculous to be so impressed with something as simple as a torch but to stand in a room surrounded by Olympic torches of the past (Moscow, Tokyo, London, Sydney, Beijing, Athens, Munich, Seoul) is pretty amazing. Not only do these torches represent their countries and the respective Olympic games that were held there, the athletes who triumphed, the state of the world at the time, they represent an international unification of countries all around the world, with different lives, beliefs and people, and they represent a history that goes back farther than you or I can imagine. 

The Panathenaic stadium was impressive to say the least. It's hard to believe that something so striking and ancient still exists in the hectic everyday of modern Athens, but it serves as a reminder of the past, of the long history that this city has, of the people who used to live where we do now. The stadium, along with a lot of other ancient Greek monuments, creates a legacy that has endured and will endure longer than just about anything else in the world.