How did an ancient- Classical Athenian pass his daylife?
First of all, he was visiting Athens Agora to discuss and learn daily news and trends. Moreover, Agora was the place of exports of Athenian ceramics and olive oil, to the rest of the world. Keramikos was connected to ancient city center. In order to get to Dionysus Theater he was using Tripodon street and could see Lysicratous monument.
Then -if there was a day that a conference was on the calendar, he was visiting the Pnyx.
Otherwise, Agora was his place of visit. Some were also visiting gums and schools.
If you were a faith Athenian, you had to pay tribute to Gods, so you had to climb Acropolis Rock to Athena’s temple.
When you were willing to move on a big step in your life, you had to visit Delphi’s Oracle.
Every four years, you had to attend Olympic Games. Thankfully, today you have the opportunity to be at Olympic Flame ceremony, at Olympia and Panathenaic Stadium.
Annually you had to follow the sacred path of Panathinea- following Iera Odos that connected Athens to Elefsina, passing via Dipylon Gates at Keramikos.
Athenians were annually honouring Marathon & Salamis battles’ dead ancestors.
After their defeat from Spartans and Macedonians, Athenians demolished their Walls. Today ancient walls can be found around the city at Andrianou street, at Kerameikos archaeological site, at Philopappou hill (Dipylon gates’ remains are still here) and more locations.
Moreover, in Athens someone can also discover Plato’s Academy at Kolonos area today, but also Lycaeum Aristoteles’ near Byzantine Museum.
One of the unique points of interest is Socrates’ prison. Of course you can visit also Elefsina, if you want to feel even more religious as an ancient Athenian.
We don’t know if the 19th century travellers could feel closer or not to the ancient Athenian…