Introduction and Basic Information

At the time Greece was divided up into city states known as Polis. There were well over 1500 of these Polis’s at the time. Athens is said to have been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the 4th millennium BC, or nearly 7000 years. It was the largest Polis in Greece with a population of 20,000 people. It was also the first state to be democratic (people voted for their leader in elections) but of its 200,000 residents only 35,000 qualified as citizens who could vote in the democratic process. The rest were slaves, women, children, and foreigners.

The common image used to describe Athens its the Pathenon which is a religous building where worship was carried out.

The city was named after the Greek Goddess of wisdom known as Athena or Athene. There is a Greek myth about how the city got its name:

Cecrops, a strange creature, half-man half-snake was the founder of the city that he named after himself. The God’s of Olympus saw this piece of land and wanted to name it after them and become its patron. The two most persistent rivals were Poseidon God of the sea and Athena Goddess of wisdom.  To decide Zeus set them both a challenge for each of them to give a gift to the city and Cecrops would decide the best gift.

One sunny day, Cecrops and the residents of the city went up to a high hill to watch the gods giving their gifts. Poseidon was the first to present his gift. He struck a rock with his trident and caused a spring of water to gush forth from the ground. This signified that he was assuring the citizens with water and therefore they wouldn’t face any time of drought. However, the people were not exactly enchanted with his gift because the water from the spring tasted salty, just like the waters of the sea over which Poseidon ruled. Next there was the turn of goddess Athena. She planted a seed in the ground, which grew up to become a lovely olive tree. The citizens liked this gift better because it would give them food, oil and firewood. With one voice they loudly acclaimed Athena as their benefactress.

This is how the goddess Athena got the everlasting honor of naming the city after her. Indeed, the residents of Athens built numerous glorious temples dedicated to her, organized festivals to honour their patroness and, when money was invented, they depicted goddess Athens and her sacred bird, the owl, symbol of wisdom, on both sides of their coins. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that this myth has a point of reality: many olive trees are found till today in the suburbs of Athens, but the city indeed faces problems of drought, especially in summer, and needs to get supplied with water from rivers in other Greek areas, such as Yliki lake, close to modern Thebes, and Mornos river, in the prefecture of Fokida.

Athena Greek Goddess that Athens is named after.

 

Athens is one of the most famous city states and this is the basic information that you’ll need to know about it. We know a lot about Athens because a lot of writters and artists lived in there and many of their works still survive today as does the city itself.

The city skyline today.

 I have found the Athens very different from some of the other city states in Greece such as Sparta. But it was still very interesting to be there.