Tourism through the Ages - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 34

s travel combined business and pleasure, as did that of Solon, who led Athens
through a crisis, then took a trip abroad. Athens developed into a tourist attraction from the second
half of the fifth century on, as people went to see the Parthenon and other new buildings atop the
Acropolis.
Today's traveler who gets into trouble in a foreign city usually turns to his country's consulate.
The ancient Greek turned to his proxenos (from the Greek pro, meaning ''before'' or ''for,'' and
xenos, foreigner). The primary duty of the proxenos was to aid and assist in all ways possible any of
his compatriots who turned up in the place of his residence, particularly those who had come in
some of cial capacity. 23 His more mundane duties might include extending hospitality, obtaining
theater tickets, or extending a loan for someone who had run short of funds while visiting. More
complex duties included negotiating ransom for relatives of someone taken as a prisoner of war.
The heirs of someone who died in the city might ask the proxenos to wind up essential financial
matters there. 24
As the fourth century B . C . E . came to a close in Greece, people traveled despite the discomfort and
dangers. Traveling by sea, they worried about storms and pirates; by land, about bad roads, dismal
inns, and highwaymen. Only the wealthy described by Homer could escape the worst pitfalls.
Those who traveled for business, healing, or entertainment at festivals represented the majority. A
small minority traveled for the sheer love of it

Possibly, Herodotus '

s first great travel writer.
The museum, born in the ancient Near East, came of age with the Greeks. Sanctuaries such as
Apollo

— like Herodotus, the world '

s at Delphi and that of Zeus at Olympia gradually accumulated valuable objects donated either
as thank-you offerings for services rendered or as bribes for acts the supplicant hoped would be
rendered. Herodotus describes six gold mixing bowls dedicated by Gyges of Lydia and weighing some
1,730 pounds and a gold lion from Croesus weighing 375 pounds. While Herodotus singled these out
because of their cost, others were notable for their aesthetic qualities. The Greeks had few precious
metals but hewed the plentiful marble with consummate skill. The temple of Hera exempli es the
scope and quality of sculpture acquired from the seventh through the third centuries B . C . E .:

'

All over the Greek world through generous gifts of statues and paintings from the hopeful or the
satis

s cathedrals
and churches were destined to become....Andthey drew visitors the same way that art laden
churches do today to see the treasures and only incidentally, to say a prayer. 25

ed, temples became art galleries as well as houses of worship — exactly as Europe '

In Asia Minor, beginning with the installation of a democratic government in Ephesus by Alexander
the Great in 334 B . C . E ., some 700,000 tourists would crowd the city (in what is now Turkey) in a single
season to be entertained by the acrobats, animal acts, jugglers, magicians, and prostitutes who lled
the streets. Ephesus also became an important trading center and, under Alexander, was one of the
most important cities in the ancient world.

Early Ships

The Phoenicians were master shipwrights, building tubby wooden craft with a single square sail. By
800 B . C . E ., they had built a network of trading posts around the Mediterranean emanating from their
own thriving cities along the coast in what is now Lebanon. Acting as middlemen for their neighbors,
they purveyed raw materials and also finished goods, such as linen and papyrus from Egypt, ivory and
gold from Nubia, grain and copper from Sardinia, olive oil and wine from Sicily, cedar timbers from
their homeland, and perfume and spices from the East. Presumably, these early ships also occasionally
carried a few passengers. They were the first creators of a maritime empire.
The Greeks followed the in becoming great sea traders. Improved ships accelerated a

flourishing Mediterranean trade. Merchant ships also carried paying passengers (although Noah with
his ark probably deserves credit for being the first cruise operator, even though his passengers were
primarily animals). Unlike Noah

Phoenicians

' s passengers, those sailing on Greek ships had to bring their own