As ever, whenever I’m in a new city I take pictures of anything that strikes me as interesting and then I go and research it later. This post rounds up all those random statues I photographed around Athens. The first is that of Yannis Makriyannis. Located not far from the southeast entrance of the Acropolis, though tucked away a little bit in the corner of a small grassy area, this statue is of one of the men who fought for Greek independence in the 1820s. He also is known at least in Greece for his memoirs which were notable for being written in Demotic Greek, the standard spoken language of modern Greece. It translates as language of the people.
This statue is called the Discus Thrower and is in the garden opposite the Panathenaic Stadium. Created by sculptor Kostas Dimitriadis in 1924 it won the first prize at the 1924 Paris Olympics. This though is a copy created in 1927 – the original is in Randall’s Island Park in New York.
This statue is also in the Zappeion Garden across from the Panathenaic Stadium and is considered to be one of the finest statues in Athens which is certainly saying something. Created by Dimitris Phillippotis in 1908 it is called The Wood Breaker.
The final sculpture is called The Child with Grapes and can be found in Syntagma Square. Created in bronze again by Dimitris Phillippotis. It’s a bit unclear if this is supposed to be a representation of a particular god or just a generic boy enjoying some grapes but it is certainly very well done.
Louise Jayne's Blog 