Pericles

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

Well, I was trying to think through how to do a post about Pericles, and I haven't a clue, the know how actually...the reach is for his consolidating the Delian League, and moving its treasure from Delos to Athens...and this just when the Persians destroy the Acropolis with its first Parthenon, and then are defeated by the Greeks...this wasn't a big deal to the Persians...Greece a country on the edge of their empire...and the Athenians were content for awhile it seems to leave the Acropolis in ruins, but Pericles set himself about restoring it and built the Parthenon known today...one can't help but read this story, and not see the correspondence to the Temples in Jerusalem...anyway, Pericles and the Athenians used the Delian League to fund the building, and much else, and they began to over reach, and the Spartans took exception, and war between Athens and Sparta resulted...Pericles participated at its outset, but a plague struck Athens, and he fell victim...and Athens fell to the Spartans...they used the just finished Parthenon for a barracks...

These old temples tell the history of their times...looking about, youtube tourist clips of Athens and the Acropolis, I found myself watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier below the Greek Parliament building...just the occasions at that one small sacred spot with its sacred ceremony, tell a history...once a vandal set afire one of the guard shacks...the guard didn't move until given the order by other soldiers there without the ceremonial duties...his clothes were scorched and smoking...another time, warning of a nearby bomb threat was given...the two guards remained at their posts...I was curious about the uniforms, and web studied that out...and found the story of the Greek soldier who was commanded by the Germans when they took the Acropolis in WW2 to lower the Greek flag and give it to the Germans...rather than give it to the Germans, he wrapped it about himself, and leaped off the edge of the Acropolis to his death...I've been squirreling away acts of defiance for a post sometimes!...

Pericles' time is called the Golden Age of Greece, and where democracy comes from...curiously, citizens would gather to vote on everything, and everything decided by majority vote, rather than electing political officers who would then decide, though I think Pericles held an elected position, so I have to puzzle over this and what the NOVA clip Restoring the Parthenon is going on about!...perhaps a remnant of this majority voting is trial by a jury of your peers in our courts...that, and the propositions on the California ballot!

Is there a vote coming up?...have to check...June it would appear for the Presidential primary...

Oh...while I've been goofing around, my tenant has been studying for her citizenship test to become an American...I hadn't a clue, until one morning I very early  happened on Hanh's husband at the kitchen table...neither speak very good English, but husband is almost zero...after going through permutations of what sounded like 'citizen' , I said, 'Oh, citizenship test!'...and wished Hanh, all dressed up,  good luck as she left with her husband taking her to immigration!...and she returned with the tale of the day, and her success...'I very happy!'

DavidDavid