BRIGHT ACROPOLIS!

-text Andrei Dorian Gheorghe;
design Florin-Alexandru Stancu-

A dream of mine was
to travel by a time train through antique Athens,
the town of democracy, philosophy and arts,
to speak with Euxodius
about his spherical astronomy,
to congratulate Aratus
for his treatise of astropoetry, Phenomena,
to frequent Plato’s Academy
and Aristotle’s Lyceum…

But I could only visit its main symbol
(from which the Parthenon
inspired the symbol of UNESCO)
Acropolis
in June 2013…

Yes,
the fascinating upper city of Athens,
with Odeon, Dionysos’ Theatre, Erechteion,
the Temple of Athena Nike with its caryatids,
and especially Parthenon
(the superb temple dedicated to goddess Athena,
with “metopes” representing the cosmic war
between Olympian gods and Giants)…

From here,
I could also admire other vestiges of antiquity:
the Hill of the Muses,
the Temples of
Hephaistos and Zeus Olympion
(completed in Roman times by Hadrian’s Arch),
along with Byzantine, modern, and contemporary buildings,
a real mosaic of ages…

“Do you think I made a mistake
when I preferred to die
for my ideas?”
suddenly the spirit of the great philosopher Socrates
(who had been imprisoned at the foot of Acropolis)
asked me like in a dream.

“I think that your gesture
was just a noble decision
in the superior and tragic beauty
of this world,”
was my answer,
“where Acropolis will remain forever
a bright heart.”