William Mathews 

   The Philosophical Importance of Desire and Narrative

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Athens with some of my philosophical colleagues and others on a five day tour, excellently arranged by The Travel Department, a travel agent in Dublin. After an overnight flight our first day was given, largely, to a tour of downtown Athens. On the way into the city in our coach we caught our first glimpse in the distance of the Piraeus, scene of the dialogue in Plato’s Republic.

After visiting such downtown features as the stadium in which the first Olympic games were held in modern times we made our way to the Acropolis. As we climbed up its steps at the start of a three hour visit, we had our first close up of the Parthenon. This was followed by our visit to the excellent Acropolis museum, guarded by the wise owl. Returning to the front of the Parthenon, our guide took us through the details of its story along with those of the temple of Athena and Poisedon, and the theatre of Dionysius where the dramas of Sophocles were first performed. As we descended from the Acropolis we drew close to the Agora, the market place of the ancient city where, no doubt, Socrates engaged in many dramatic dialogues, but we did not have time to visit its museum. What also impressed us was the significance of the words, I went down, in the Republic. To journey from the Acropolis or Agora to the port of the Piraeus involved a considerable descent.

Next the guide took us through Plaka, a sort of left bank dining center of Athens which sits under the shadow of the Acropolis. No doubt Socrates would have enjoyed joining in the conversations that were taking place in the myriad of restaurants.

The second day was devoted to Corinth, Mycenae and Epidarius. It was fascinating to see boats navigating the Corinth canal and later the ruins of Mycenae, entered through the lion gate; and in the museum the human forms, grave stones and clay tablets on which were inscribed Linear A and B type symbols and language. Here we find something transitional between cuneiform and alphabetical writing. The museum holdings in Mycenae were astonishing. All of this brought home to us the real life drama that was the war with Troy and its dramatic cast of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Priam, Hecuba, Paris, Helen, Achilles, Hector, Cassandra - the prophetess of Troy, Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, Orestes and Electra and others. On the way our Greek tour guide read for us some verses from Seamus Heaney’s poem Mycenae Watchman, very appropriate! The tour was rounded off with a visit to the spectacular theatre at Epidarus. Two small children stood at the acoustic centre and recited poems which I could hear perfectly well at the very top row of the seats.

The story is told that Zeus released two eagles with the instructions to find the centre of the world and that it was on Delphi that they landed. Hence its navel stone signature. On the long journey there on the third day our guide entertained us with such stories. The museum was excellent with its Sphinx, Socrates-like philosopher and charioteer. The temple itself, with its great rock cliffs as a backdrop and view down the valley to the sea gave one a great sense of a very remote but sacred place to which one would have to journey as a pilgrim.

On Saturday and Sunday we were free to go our own way and so on Saturday we set off to visit the Museum of Archaeology in Athens, absolutely world class, should not be missed, especially the horse and jockey statue of Poisedon as well as the wall murals from the Cyclades. Many hours were spent there.

Behind schedule we hailed a taxi to take us to the site on the map designated as the Academy of Plato. The taxi driver drove to the appointed intersection of roads and then expressed some perplexity. It seems to be that hedge there, down the middle of the road, he remarked. Taken aback,we disembarked and began to explore the location, at first finding nothing but a large Church on the designated site. Eventually, somewhat by accident, we came across a sign at the back outside a heavily locked gate. The enclosure behind it was fortified and did not invite further exploration. On turning back we discovered signs on a nearby road called Plato’s way, a road that on further examination looked like it ran back towards the Agora. Somehow, it seems, Plato’s Academy escaped us.

As the clock was ticking we hailed a taxi to take us to the site of Aristotle’s Lyceum, allegedly in the grounds of the Christian and Byzantium Museum. To our surprise the taxi driver shook his head and said he could not take us there. Further questions disclosed that there was a very heavy police presence in the downtown of the city because of an anti-Iraq war demonstration and the streets were blocked off. A second taxi agreed to take us to the nearest point to the site, near Syntagma, from which we could walk the final distance. This we did through a huge police cordon.

Arriving at the Museum of Byzantine and Christian Art we produced the guide book for the receptionist and pointed out its connection with the Lyceum of Aristotle. A look of perplexity greeted us. Two further colleagues were summoned, the second of whom said in Greek, oh yes, its over there but you cannot visit it; it is not opening until 2007. Further questions ascertained that the site was along the side of an adjacent road. We exited the Museum, turned left, and left again into the road only to be confronted with an enormous gathering of police, readying themselves for the demonstration. It took courage to walk through this gathering. Eventually we discovered location of the the site, which was rendered almost invisible by carefully constructed hoarding. Through the one and only small crack in it we could see the location of the site. At the appropriate place while standing on my toes I held my digital camera over the top of the hoarding and, despite being worried by the security presence, I took the precious photograph of the supposed site of Aristotle’s Lyceum

The final day was given over to a Ferry trip to the nearest island, Aegina. The weather was magnificent, and the boat trip extremely relaxing after all the excitement of the previous four days. On the harbour front of the island we found a family run fish restaurant with some octopi hanging up to dry. The bream was first class as was the review of the episodes of the week. The conclusion was that a further visit to Athens when Aristotle’s Lyceum opens is an absolute necessity, at which time the puzzle of Plato’s Academy is to be resolved and many more Greek islands visited.