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Athens City Center
History of Athens
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- According to archaeological finds, the first attempts at an organized city in the region of Athens took place during the Neolithic period.
- Erechtheus, according to myth, settled the disagreement between the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon, who were rivals for protection of the city, as well as for the name.
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Athena offered an olive tree to the residents, whereas Poseidon offered a horse. The residents settled on the olive tree, and Athena. For this reason, the city took the name of the goddess.
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- Around 800 BC, the synoecism, or unification of villages, took place in Athens, an event which was thereafter celebrated in a yearly rite called the Panathenaia, which was offered in thanks to the goddess Athena.
- Theseus was considered the founder of Athens, because he was the orchestrator of the synoecism which brought about a united city named “Athens” in honor of its divine protectress.
- During the eighth and seventh centuries BC, Athens underwent nautical and commercial development. Up to the fifth century BC, three politicians distinguished themselves especially: Themistokles, Miltiades, and Aristeides.
- The fifth century was the “Golden Age” under, in part, the leadership of the statesman Perikles. During the time, Athens reached its apogee of cultural and artistic flower.
- Later, Christianity did its work on the city, and the Crusades followed. In 1392 the Turks arrived on Greek soil. After about 300 years, the Venetians invaded Athens, with one result being that the Parthenon suffered enormous damage.
- In 1821, the Acropolis was besieged and Pasha Omer entered it. A decade later Greece became a sovreign nation, and Athens eventually became the capital of Greece, after Nafplio.
- In 1896, the Olympic Games took place in Athens.
- In 1923, after the destruction of the city Smyrna, refugees in the thousands fled to Athens, resulting in a rapid growth spurt and development in the city. During the Inter-War years, electricity came to Athens, as well as radio and the first “talkies.”
- On October 18, 1944, the Greek flag waved again over the Acropolis; however, the Greek Civil War followed.
- Two dictatorships took power: during the rule of the second, in 1973, the rebuff of the University Students’ protest against them at the National Metsovian Polytechnic University in Athens was the beginning of its end.
- In 1997 the Olympic Games (Summer Games) were returned to Athens, and in 2004 they took place in the country of their founding, 104 years after their first Athenian incarnation.
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