An Athens sunset cruise is an evening trip on the sea off the coast of Athens, the capital of Greece. It is one of the Greece tours that set the coast, the old myths and the landmarks of the city side by side.
What does an Athens sunset cruise mean?
Athens sunset cruise describes an evening trip by boat, out on the sea beside the Greek capital. The word sunset names the time of day, and the word cruise names a relaxed trip by boat. Athens names the coast where the trip happens.
The Athens Riviera is the southwestern coast of Attica, the region around Athens. It forms the eastern coastline of the Saronic Gulf. The word gulf means a large bay, and the word riviera means a coastal stretch known for holidays. Talk of an Athens sunset cruise therefore centres on this gulf and its eastern shore.
The Athens Riviera takes in these southern suburbs: Varkiza, Vouliagmeni, Voula, Glyfada, Elliniko, Palaio Faliro and Alimos. The word suburb means a residential district on the outskirts of a city. These seven names mark places on land. The phrase Athens sunset cruise describes a trip on the water.
Athens’s urban area surrounds the gulf’s northern and eastern coasts. On the gulf’s northeastern edge lies Piraeus, the port of Athens. The word port means a harbour for loading and unloading people and goods. Cape Lomvardi lies southwest of Vouliagmeni. A cape is the name for a point of land that stretches out over the water.
Old Phaleron stood as a small village by the sea before 1920. A village is a small settlement, far smaller than a city. Today the area of Phalerum is occupied by Palaio Faliro, Kallithea, Moschato and Neo Faliro. So part of the coast linked with an Athens sunset cruise was once a village shore.
- Extent: The Athens Riviera runs from the southern suburbs to the far south of Attica.
- Areas: A national tourism body lists ten main areas along the Athens Riviera.
- Climate: The Saronic Gulf moderates, or softens, the climate of the south of the Athens city region.
Ancient Attica had a coastal sector, which means a coastal part of the region. It included the area between Eleusis and Cape Sounion. Today, an Athens sunset cruise is a modern evening trip on a coast with a long recorded past.
On an Athens sunset cruise, what do the Hesperides add?
An Athens sunset cruise and the Hesperides share one idea, the evening. The ancient Greeks told of the Hesperides, nature spirits called nymphs, who tend a garden of golden apples. The word Hesperos means evening in Greek, and the nymphs took their name from it.
The ancient Greeks also called the Hesperides the Atlantides, after their reputed father Atlas. Reputed means that this was what the old storytellers said. In those tales, the garden lay in a far western corner of the world. It stood near the Atlas Mountains in North Africa.
The garden was Hera’s orchard in the west. Golden apples grew there on a tree or in a grove of trees. According to the tale, Gaia gave Hera golden-apple branches as a wedding gift. That old storytelling gives readers a myth to enjoy before an Athens sunset cruise.
Hera set Ladon, a dragon with a hundred heads that never slept, to guard the apples. The first of Heracles’ two extra labours was stealing apples from the Hesperides’ garden. A labour here means a hard task. The dragon and the labour add drama for anyone reading about an Athens sunset cruise.
Another story has Heracles trick Atlas into fetching golden apples. Heracles made the offer to hold up the heavens, which means the sky, for a short time. That offer is how Atlas came to fetch the golden apples. These stories are easy reading for those planning an Athens sunset cruise.
- Euripides: Euripides called the Hesperides minstrel maids, meaning singers, for their power of sweet song.
- Oceanus: In the tales, the garden sat at the edge of Oceanus, the ocean that encircles the world.
- Pliny: Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, placed the garden at Lixus in modern Morocco.
A Greek botanical name for citrus species was Hesperidoeidē, meaning hesperidoids, a word built from the Hesperides’ name. Botanical means about plants, while a species counts as a single kind of plant. That is a last small note for an Athens sunset cruise planner.
On an Athens sunset cruise, what does Hesperus add?
An Athens sunset cruise and the old Greek figure Hesperus share one idea, the evening. The name Hesperus literally means evening in Ancient Greek. A myth, meaning a story the ancient Greeks told, turns that word into a person with a family.
Hesperus comes from a family of the dawn, a very different hour from an Athens sunset cruise. Hesperus was a son of the dawn goddess Eos. The Romans knew the same goddess as Aurora. Phosphorus was the other son of Eos, so he was the half-brother of Hesperus. Half-brothers have one parent in common.
For anyone curious about an Athens sunset cruise, the family of Hesperus holds a second Greek name. Phosphorus is also called Eosphorus. In Greek, Eosphorus means bearer of dawn. A bearer is a person who carries something, so the word names someone who carries the dawn.
Old accounts do not agree on who the father of Hesperus was. One account names the mortal Cephalus as the father. A mortal is a person who lives and dies, unlike a god. Other sources make Hesperus the brother of Atlas and so a son of Iapetus.
A writer named Servius wrote that Hesperus lived on Mount Oeta in Thessaly. Oeta is a mountain, and Thessaly is the place where that mountain stands. The account gives Hesperus a home on land, tied to a named place. A mountain home is a different setting from an Athens sunset cruise.
- Roman name: Romans used the name Vesper as the equivalent of the Greek name Hesperus.
- Children: Hesperus was said to be the father of Ceyx and Daedalion.
- Name mix-up: His name is sometimes mixed up with the names of his brother.
Servius did not separate the Evening Star from the Morning Star, calling both Hesperus. The Evening Star is the star seen at dusk, the Morning Star the star seen at dawn. Hesperus thus names both stars, a neat note for an Athens sunset cruise.
On an Athens sunset cruise, what does Selene add?
An Athens sunset cruise ties in with Selene, the goddess and personification of the Moon in Greek mythology. In plain words, Selene is the Moon given the form of a goddess. The ancient Greeks told stories about her and her family.
Her name comes from the Greek noun selas, a word meaning light, brightness or gleam. The Romans had a counterpart for her, the goddess Luna, in their own religion and mythology. A counterpart is a matching figure. The name suits an Athens sunset cruise story, since it links the Moon to light.
Traditionally, Selene is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. The Titans were a group of gods in Greek myth. She is also the sister of the sun god Helios and the dawn goddess Eos. So the Moon, the sun and the dawn share one family in these stories, as three siblings.
Selene drives her moon chariot across the heavens. In art she is shown either driving a chariot or riding sideways on horseback. Her earliest known chariot image is on an early 5th-century BC red-figure cup. Red-figure names a style of Greek pottery painting. Such art gives an Athens sunset cruise a clear picture of her.
A frieze is a long band of carved stone, and the Pergamon Altar has one. It shows Selene fighting against Giants in the Gigantomachy. That word names the ancient Greek story of a war between gods and Giants. That scene gives an Athens sunset cruise tale a bold side.
- Weekday: The ancient Greeks named Monday the day of the Moon, after Selene.
- Love story: Selene is best known for her love affair with Endymion, a mortal, not a god.
- Chemistry: Jöns Jacob Berzelius named the chemical element selenium after Selene.
At Athens, the ancient Greeks made wineless offerings, called nephalia, to Selene. Wineless means the offerings were made without wine. That gives an Athens sunset cruise a real link to the Moon goddess. In this way, the city itself honoured her.
On an Athens sunset cruise, what does the Tower of the Winds add?
An Athens sunset cruise leaves room for a story from land: the Tower of the Winds. The astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus designed this tower, according to the writers Vitruvius and Varro. An astronomer is a scientist who studies the stars and planets.
Anyone planning an Athens sunset cruise can start with the age of the tower. The exact date is uncertain, but the tower was completed by about 50 BC at the latest. The writer Varro mentioned it in his book De re Rustica, dated to about 37 BC.
The tower is one of a very small number of classical buildings still standing virtually intact. Classical means built in the ancient world. The Archaeological Society of Athens fully excavated it in the 19th century. The word excavate means to uncover a site by digging, then study it.
The water tank at the back of the tower was fed by a spring called the Clepsydra. A spring is a natural flow of water out of the ground. During Ottoman rule, the tower was buried up to half its height. Details like these suit an Athens sunset cruise conversation about old Athens.
Qadiri dervishes, members of a religious order, used the tower for their rituals from 1751 until 1821. The Athens Ephorate of Antiquities carried out restoration work between 2014 and 2016. Restoration means repairing a building with care for its old parts. Both chapters add depth to any Athens sunset cruise story about the tower.
- Roof: The main roof is essentially original and made of 24 stone slabs, each a four-sided trapezoid.
- Columns: Eight very small columns, under four feet high, stand inside at each corner of the tower.
- Capitals: The porch columns’ capitals, the carved tops, lacked the scroll-shaped volutes that normally mark a Corinthian capital.
James Stuart and Nicholas Revett surveyed the tower on an expedition in 1751 to 1754. To survey is to measure and record a building. That survey work makes the Tower of the Winds a good topic for an Athens sunset cruise.
On an Athens sunset cruise, what does the Georgios Averof add?
An Athens sunset cruise gains a warship story from the Georgios Averof. Widely known in Greece as a battleship, she is in fact an armoured cruiser. Armoured means protected by thick steel plates, and a cruiser is a fast warship.
The Georgios Averof was built at a shipyard in Livorno, Italy. The word shipyard means a site where vessels are built. Her launch took place on 12 March 1910, the day she first entered the water. Anyone reading up before an Athens sunset cruise can begin with that date.
She was named after Georgios Averof, a wealthy Greek benefactor. A benefactor is a person who gives money to help a good cause. The cruiser reached Faliro Bay, near Athens, on 1 September 1911. The word bay means a curved stretch of shoreline where the sea pushes inland.
During the First Balkan War, the cruiser led the Greek fleet as its flagship. A flagship carries the fleet’s commander. She fought the Ottoman Navy at Elli in 1912 and at Lemnos in 1913. The Ottoman Navy was the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. Those battles add to any Athens sunset cruise story.
Between 1919 and 1922, in the Greco-Turkish War, the cruiser supported troop landings in Eastern Thrace. Troop landings are soldiers coming ashore from ships. After the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, she joined the Greek fleet’s withdrawal to Egypt. Such history is a good topic for an Athens sunset cruise.
- Return: In October 1944 the cruiser carried the exiled Greek government, then working abroad, back to Athens.
- Headquarters: The cruiser served as Fleet Headquarters until 1952, when she was decommissioned, meaning taken out of service.
- Museum ship: In 1984 the Navy decided to restore the cruiser as a museum ship, kept to show history.
Hellenic Navy ships entering or sailing in Faliro Bay honour the Averof while passing. To honour a ship means to show it formal respect. For anyone planning an Athens sunset cruise, that respect is a reason to learn her story.
Which questions matter before an Athens sunset cruise starts?
An Athens sunset cruise brings up four simple questions. They cover the airport codes, the temperatures in three months, and the municipalities of South Athens. They also cover the gulf of Athens and the Myrtoan Sea. Every answer below keeps to simple language.
Which airport serves an Athens sunset cruise?
This airport has the IATA code ATH. An IATA code is a short three-letter label that marks an airport. Its ICAO code is LGAV, a four-letter label of the same kind. It is commonly known by the initials AIA, which are the first letters of a longer name.
Which season suits an Athens sunset cruise?
In April, downtown Athens has an average low of 12.3 °C. In July, downtown Athens has a mean, or average, temperature of 29.3 °C. In October, downtown Athens has an average low of 16.2 °C. An average low is a day’s coldest reading, averaged over the month.
Which regional unit holds an Athens sunset cruise?
The term regional unit means an area of local government, and South Athens is one. It is split into smaller areas called municipalities. Nea Smyrni is one of its municipalities. Moschato-Tavros is another, and so is Elliniko-Argyroupoli. The word municipality means a town or district that has a local council of its own.
Which gulf lies beside an Athens sunset cruise?
The Saronic Gulf is a bay, the gulf of Athens. Its place is between the Myrtoan Sea and the Corinth Canal. The Myrtoan Sea is described as part of the Aegean Sea south of Euboea, Attica and Argolis. It is said to be named after Myrtilus, a hero of Greek tales.