he beginning of the history of Attica and Athens is lost in the darkness of time. But what history ignores is filled in by myth and tradition, at least in what concerns the gods who had a direct relationship with the town of Athens, through their clashes over which of them would be its protector.

		nce upon a time, in Olympus took place the Council of the Twelve Gods. Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, were laying claim to Attica. When the time came for their showdown, Poseidon struck the rock of the Acropolis with his trident and at that point a horse sprang out among with rushing water. Athena replied by striking the rock right next to it with her spear and the first olive tree sprang forth. The gods finally declared Athena as the victress and so she became the protectress of the town, which took her name.

ttica is also connected with two other divinities: Dionysos the god of wine and intoxication. The vineyard was the gift of this god to his be-loved city of Athens. During the historical times, Attica celebrated the Dionysia, an uninhibited festival, in his honor with dances and processions. Tragedy and comedy were born of the dithyrambic performances which were given during these ceremonies.
Attica is also connected to the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone whom Hades abducted in order to make her his wife. During the goddess' desperate quest for her daughter, she was given hospitality at the home of Keleos, the King of Eleusis. In gratitude for the hospitality Keleos had offered her, Demeter taught the inhabitants of Eleusis how to cultivate the earth. At the site where Athenians first encountered the goddess, a temple was built, in which the Eleusinian Mysteries were conducted in her honor.

The hero of Athens was Theseus, a historical person, but with a mythical dimension. The life of Theseus was laying between the myth and reality.
He was considered as a demigod, who accomplished amazing feats, with his incredible physical strength and his free spirit. To him is attributed the act of uniting the small settlements of the area and the creation of a single town, Athens.
This act was celebrated with great processions and contests called the Panathenaia. Theseus had also a strange relationship with Cape Sounion area.

ccording to the myth, Minos the King of Crete, had obliged Athens to send seven young men and seven young women to him each year, as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. Theseus, the son of the King of Athens Aegeous, wanted to free his town from this blood tribute. The ship with the young people, (Theseus was among them), was readied. Black sails were raised on its masts, but if the venture was succesful, Aegeus had requested that white sails would be raised in their place.

ith his great strength Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur and following the thread of Ariadne, found his way out of the labyrinth, where Minotaur was kept. But caught up in his joy he forgot to change the black sails. So the unfortunate Aegeus, surveying the sea from Sounion and seeing the ship coming with the black sails, thought his son was dead and leapt into the sea. Since that time, that sea is called the Aegean Sea!

t appears that Athens was systematically inhabited before 8000 BC. Little things we know about the history of Athens until 3rd millennium BC. In this period, Athens was inhabited by the Pelasgians. The oldest walls of the Acropolis, today called the Pelasgian or Cyclopean walls, are credited to them, as well as many of the ancient temples. In the middle of the second millenium the Ionians settled in Attica.
After their settlement, Attica was divided into separate small towns which made their own, independent decisions and only held consultations with the king in times of war. Then Kekrops appeared, and he is considered to be the first king of Athens. His successors were Pandion, Erecheus, Aegeus and finally Theseus.

hen the Dorians came to southern Greece in the 12th century BC, brought an end to the Mycennean civilization in overall area. When later they invaded Attica, in 1066 BC, the Athenians went against them under King Kodros.  During that period the population was divided into four races and the body of the citizenry into three classes: the Eupatrides (Patricians nobles and landowners) the farmers and the artisans. At the beginning of the 8th century BC power passed to these Eupatrides and the king retained only the direction of the official sacrifices.

The military command was held by a chief, who was named for life, the executive authority was assumed by an Archon and the enactment of laws by a group of legislators. With the gradual decline of the monarchy, an aristocratic regime was established by the nobles and landowners who held authority in their hands. In the middle of the 7th century BC there were a large number of social and political disturbances in Athens.

n 594 BC Solon drafted legislation that organized the state on the basis of the citizens' income. This state, based on "worth" (a timocracy), even though it was the first stage of democracy, did not get rid of social conflict. This was resolved by a "tyranny", that is, the assumption of power by an absolute ruler. The Tyrant, usually an aristocrat, sought to insure popular support with the ceding of land and the carrying out of public works.
One of the main factors in Athen's course toward democracy was the tyrant Peisistratos who ruled the city during the 6th century BC. His concern for the arts and sciences created a cultural explosion, which was socially effective. His policies also led to a vast increase of the output of the mines at Lavrio in the 5th century BC, as well as to the rapid growth of the town's commerce.

ut the contribution of Peisistratos to the development of the religious and cultural life of the town is also considered significant: he imbued the worship of Athena, the protectress of the town, with particular brilliance, by building her Hecatopedon and enhancing the Panathenaia. He facilitated the spread of the Eleusinian Mysteries and established the Dionysia. To him is also attributed the writing down of the Homeric epics.

ith the fall of the Peisistratid line, equilibrium was brought to Athenian society by the great politician Kleisthenis in 508 BC. His reforms gave to the Athenian
citizens institutions to consolidate the power that would stop the extension of the Persian Empire onto the European continent. At the beginning of the 5th century BC the Persians decided on a campaign against the Greeks, spurred mainly by the uprising of the Greeks in Ionia. The conquest of the Greek peninsula and the Aegean Sea, however, would be stopped by their defeat in 490 BC at Marathon. Athens, led in this battle by Miltiades, showed its superiority over the rest of the Greeks. The Persians 10 years later tried again to conquest Greece, this time lead by Xerxes the successor to the Persian throne. They were once more defeated by the Athenians at the naval battle of Salamis (480 BC). This time the Athenians were leaded by Themistocles and Aristides the Just.

year later the triumph of the Greeks over the Persians, was sealed once and for all, at the battle of Plataies with the Athenian victory. The genius Themistocles was followed by Kimon and then by Pericles. Pericles reformed many of the laws of Solon, strengthened democracy, the army and the fleet, increased the wages of the judges, established free theater for the people and under his guidance Athens reached its zenith.

Pericles, who managed to surpass even the brilliance of Athens at its greatest moment, started the construction of the Parthenon and the Propylaia of Acropolis. The contribution of Athens to the cultural and political sector, constituted the basis of European civilization.

The Peloponnesian Wars (431- 404 BC), however, destroyed the city, but showing remarkable determination reorganized itself and again dominated the economic and cultural life of the 4th century BC with world's greatest philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
In 399 BC the Athenian democracy did the greatest mistake in its history with the death of Socrates! The rise of the power of Alexander the Great, as well as the Roman Empire later, did not lessen Athens' intellectual dominance in the world. A large scale of public works were carried out in the town.

ut with the founding of the Byzantine state, Athens began to decline and reached its nadir with the closing of the philosophical schools. The incursions of the northern races and pirates into Attica led to the desertion of Athens which was almost totally destroyed in the 12th century by Saracen pirates. The Franks occupied the town in the 13th century and the Turks in 1456. In 1821, the history and the strategic importance of the location led to the regeneration of the town and soon became the capital of Greece. By 1896 its development was so advanced that it hosted the revived Ïlympic Games. Today Athens looks into the future proud of its glory!

Photos and informations taken from "Athens - Attica" (Toubis Editions) (C)Copyright for the Web: Greekislands.com