OLD THINGS MAKE EXCITING NEWS
In Athens, people always have liked to get together and listen to anything new. The city has been famous for that quality ever since ancient days, when St. Paul drew a large audience of skeptical Stoics and Epicureans during his preaching on Mars Hill.
These days, people in Athens still are excited over new things, but about the most important news right now is the rebuilding of ancient things. One of the latest “new” buildings in Athens, for example, is the reconstruction of the ancient Stoa, or portico, which is now the most thrilling addition to the list of the city's time-honoured sights to see.
A Stoa is a long open-air concourse fronted by classic columns. Here in ancient days people came together to shop, debate, and “hear new things.” It faced on a wide market place called the Agora. The Stoa of Athens was toppled over and demolished during the wars and invasions of the Dark Ages. Later the ruins of the Agora made building materials for a squatters’ Colony.
Today, an archaeological project has cleared the Agora, and rebuilt the Stoa, painting it in the original blues and whites. Fragments of everything ancient found in the vicinity have been stowed in the Stoa for exhibition.
You who are going to Athens on the Caronia's Autumn Mediterranean Cruise will be among the first travellers to see the “new Stoa.” You will also see “new” progress in restoring the Parthenon, clearing the newly-opened Agora, new refurbishings in the Odeon and open air theatres, and a “new” view across from the Theseum to the Acropolis. Of such old things is new news made in Athens, show-place of the ancients.
[Produced for the Autumn Mediterranean Cruise departing New York 29 Sept 1966]