Exploring Greece, Israel, and Jordan– Party Thirty Two

Exploring Greece, Israel, and Jordan– Party Thirty Two July 31, 2018

A few more locales and scenes from Athens are in order, and here we will focus on things in the agora and Roman forum, namely the temple of Hephaestus, the most well preserved temple in the area, and one Paul could have seen, and the Horalogea– or water clock in the Roman forum. The more things change, the more they stay the same… in the forum men play backgammon…. listen to traditional Greek music…. imbibe some liquids and eat some fruit and nuts….. Yes that’s a mountain of fresh cherries— yum. And in general they try to stay in the shade….

or in a cafe….
Or they just stay inside on a truly hot day… most of the apartments do not have real or full air conditioning which is why so many people stay outside during the day… its better outside…

Here’s a map of the Athenian agora….
We are focusing on the temple of Hephaestus….

When Paul said to the Athenians, I perceive you are very religious, he was not being facetious. They were, but what counted as genuine religion, and what as superstition– there’s the rub. From here one could see the acropolis quite readily…. and near here he had his dialogues with the Stoics and Epicureans. It is likely as well that he visited the Roman forum nearby, and saw the horalogea– the water clock with the images of the winds. Perhaps this is why Paul mentions in Acts 17 the measuring of the time and seasons…..

How did this clock work?— Well it was a three in one thing, it appears, it was a wind vane, it was a sundial, and also the water slowly rotated down what would look like a spiraling slide, which when it passed certain marks indicated the passing of this hour or that.


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