ATHENS FROM THE ODEON OF HEROD.
Perhaps the finest of the public buildings in Athens is its Academy of Science. It is a noble structure, composed entirely of Pentelic marble and built in imitation of the classic style, with rows of grand Ionic columns, while in the pediment are sculptures resembling those with which the Greeks two thousand years ago adorned the shrines of the Acropolis. The lofty marble columns in the foreground are crowned with figures of Minerva and Apollo. Below them are the seated statues of Socrates and Plato. What more appropriate combination could be made than this: the wisdom of the gods above, the wisdom of humanity below, expressed by the greatest names which in religion and philosophy have given Athens an immortal fame? In the spring of 1896 modern Athens seemed suddenly to surpass the ancient city in interest, through the revival of the Olympian games. The mention of these famous contests suggests at once the old Greek statue of the Disk-Thrower, whose arm has been uplifted for the admiration of the world for more than two thousand years. Although this national festival of the Greeks had its origin nearly eight hundred years before the birth of Christ, and though the last one was celebrated fifteen hundred years ago, the games were renewed in 1896 as the first of a series of international athletic contests, which will hereafter take place every four years in various portions of the world. The first was given, of course, to Greece, the mother of athletics as she was of art. The next will be seen at Paris in 1900, during the Exposition there.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
For the great occasion referred to, the old Greek Stadium was partially re-excavated and furnished with hundreds of new marble seats. This was done not alone at the expense of a few rich Athenians, but also through the generosity of wealthy Greeks in Alexandria, Smyrna, London, and Marseilles. The Stadium, as it now exists, can accommodate about sixty thousand people; and on the closing day of the recently revived festival, fully that number were assembled in it, while forty thousand more were grouped outside the walls or on the road between Athens and the battlefield of Marathon. Among the contesting athletes were several manly specimens of "Young America." In every way they did us honor. Those with whom we talked on the subject spoke in the highest terms of the courtesy and kindness shown them by every one in Athens, from king to peasant. Nor was this strange. It was due, first, to their own fine qualities; second, to the popularity which America enjoys in Greece, and third, to the fact that they themselves soon proved the heroes of the Stadium.
THE DISK-THROWER.