The Hemlock Cup

The Hemlock Cup, Bettany Hughes' book, focuses not on the philosophy of Socrates, but rather 5century BC Athens. It is a fascinating insight into a strange, distant world, but the place which interests me most is the Agora. The Agora was a 37 acre patch nestled in between the epic Acropolis and the Temple of Hephaistos and was "the heart, spine, liver, spleen and lungs of Athens; the engine."

It housed all the essential services and workers; sculptors, shoemakers, armories, markets, perfumers, courts and prisons. But it also encouraged something else. It was the philosophers home, the free thinkers, the people who challenged the Gods. For the first time abstract thought was actively encouraged, and there were even dedicated spaces so they could engage with as many people as possible. It must have been an insane place, fizzing with industry, inventiveness and originality, and is brilliantly described in a wonderful book.

I sometimes talk about emotion being imbued into a piece of furniture, a sculpture or architecture, about a certain energy or feeling being imparted by the maker. I like to think its the kind of recondite subject that would have been discussed in the Agora.

I think this quote sums it up, when Plutarch, writing hundreds of years later describes the architecture in Athens....

".....Though built in a short time they have lasted for a very long time......in its perfection, each looks even at the present as if it were as fresh and newly built......it is as if some ever-flowing life and un-ageing spirit had been infused into the creation of these works."