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My Big Fat Greek Tragedy

Legend has it that, in 490 BC, a Greek soldier by the name of Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce that the Athenians had been victorious in the battle of Marathon . Upon arriving in Athens , he delivered his message and promptly collapsed and died of exhaustion. The distance he covered was approximately 25 miles, and so (in death) was born the term marathon. There are numerous variations to this story; some in which Pheidippides survives, and no doubt one involving a primitive doping scandal, however the two key elements are always the same: the long distance road run and the town of Marathon.

Whilst the history of the marathon is certainly interesting, it has become separated from what we refer to as a modern marathon, and is really just a piece of historical trivia. In this sense the marathon shares much with the modern city of Athens itself, a place not without its own fair share of historical legends and heroes, but one which feels separated from its past. On arriving in Athens I was expecting to find a city focused around its historical landmarks, steeped in the past and yet keeping pace with the rest of the West in terms of urban development, especially in light of hosting the Olympics and the European Football Championship in recent years. To say my expectations were dashed would be something of an understatement.

The city is an overcrowded heaving mass of traffic which feels a lot like a slum in parts, and the streets are crammed with densely-populated low-rise apartment blocks that appear to lean in over you, creating a permanent Dickensian duskiness. This is partly due to the rapid population expansion in Athens after each World War, which resulted in many parts of the city being built very quickly and without any consideration for the history (or beauty) of their surroundings.

The historical landmarks are the main reason most tourists flock to Athens, and observed in isolation they are awe-inspiring, in particular the Temple of Zeus and the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis. However, these monuments have a surreal quality when viewed in the context of their surroundings, not least because of the stray dogs pissing on them. Stray dogs run rife in all the pleasant open areas of the city, turning a quiet stroll through the main square (Syntagma) into a solid hour of kicking canines in the hope that they might harass a local instead.

One thing which concerned me about Athens is the general lack of open space and greenery. Aside from the National Garden behind the Parliament Building , I cannot recall seeing a single piece of open grass within Athens (even as I ventured out of the city centre) that people could use for a game of football or such-like. On the other hand the traffic is relentless throughout the day and night, so perhaps the green belt was simply obscured from my view by the smog.

An interesting point to note is the plethora of orange trees that line many of the streets in Athens . I was reliably informed that the oranges are extremely sharp in flavour and not really suitable for eating, however they are very popular with local protesters, who use them as a natural supply of ammunition during riots. I found it most amusing that these sweet oranges grow in abundance outside the Parliament Building and in the square opposite. To put this into a UK perspective, imagine someone building an industrial-sized greenhouse at the end of Downing Street and handing out big juicy tomatoes to passers by every time Tony Blair (or Gordon Brown) is in residence. It could not be any easier.

Athens is home to some 5 million people, approximately 50% of the Greek population, so it is understandable that it should feel crowded. On the other hand, it seems ridiculous in a country with such a large landmass (including over 2,000 islands) that so many people gather in one cluttered corner. The Greeks have clearly spent a great deal of money on certain parts of Athens, in particular the excellent metro train network (which is completely free of graffiti) and the numerous stadia built for the Olympics, but in doing so have failed to address the fundamental problems such as over-crowding and road safety.

In 1805 Lord Elgin, the British ambassador for the Ottoman Empire (which included Athens) removed half the sculptures from the Parthenon Temple and brought them back to Britain, to be later given to the British Museum in London. He did this to preserve the sculptures from weathering and destruction from pollution, and because he didn't feel the Athenians could be trusted to take care of them. To date these stones have never been returned to Athens, the reason being that, given the task of putting all those stones back in place, Greeks would be almost certain to come a cropper(lis).

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