George Kontogeorgos, President of the Athens Congress.

On behalf of the Hellenic Division of the IAP I would like to invite you to attend the XXVII. International Congress of the IAP to be held in Athens October 12-17, 2008. I can assure you of a high quality scientific meeting that will be held in the state of the art Megaron Convention Centre which is only a short walk from the Congress hotel, the Athens Hilton. The social events will be enjoyable and the accompanying persons programme will be outstanding.

To give you a foretaste of the Athens scene, which is quintessentially Greek, I would like to introduce some of the more noteworthy aspects of Athens.
Athens, the capital and largest city of Hellas (Greece), and the birthplace of democracy, is one of the oldest cities in the world with over 3,000 years of recorded history. It was named after the goddess Athena; and in her role as ‘Guardian of the City’ she was named Athena Polias (‘polis’ meaning city.) In ancient Athens numerous statues of her were to be seen throughout the city. Athena was also the goddess of wisdom, and as such she became associated with the symbol of the owl, whose big, watchful eyes suggested wisdom. As early as the Archaic age (800 – 500 BC) Athena is depicted on red figure pottery associated with birds, and having wings herself. Both Athena and the owl became symbols of Athens.

Owl on the Tetradrachma coin

Replica of Athena Parthenos in the Archaeological Museum. This is said to be the truest copy. The original was 12 times its size.

The structure most widely identified throughout the world with Athens is the Parthenon. This huge temple situated on the Acropolis – one of the hills that dominate the city of Athens – is dedicated to the goddess Athena. The famous sculptor Phidias (490 – 432 BC) created the beautiful gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos which once stood in the Parthenon, but only copies of the original now exist.
The outstanding feature of the ancient monuments in Greece, especially the temples, is the presence of columns. There are three main orders or styles – Doric, Ionian and Corinthian. The capital, located on top of the column, represents the most characteristic element of the orders. (The use of the word ‘order’ follows a Roman custom, in which the parts and how they are related are governed by rule.)

The Eastern end of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon on the top of the Acropolis viewed from the dining room of the Grande Bretagne Hotel.

The Doric order was the first to appear, known from the 7th century BC. The columns stood directly on the flat pavement of the temple, without a base. They had 20 vertical concave grooves called flutes and had a capital that flared from the column to meet a square abacus. The temple of Hephaestos in the ancient Agora, Athens, and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens are typical examples of some Doric columns.

The Academy. Detail of the Ionic columns.

The Ionic order, usually regarded as the most elegant, originated in the mid 6th century BC in Ionia. This region refers to the east coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey), and many adjacent islands, which had been settled by Hellenes. A century later the Ionic order was being used in mainland Hellas.

The Ionic capital had paired scrolls or volutes which were laid on the moulded cap. The columns had carved bases and were taller, more slender and more richly fluted than their Doric counterparts. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is a famous example of Ionic columns. In Athens itself, Ionic columns can be seen at the Eastern end of the Erectheion on the Acropolis, the Zappeion, the National Archaeological Museum, the Athens Academy and the National Library.

The Academy Ionic columns. On the pedestals, Athena left and Apollo right.

The Corinthian order is attributed to the ancient Hellenic architect, Callimachus. He is said to have been inspired by the sight of a votive basket that had been left on the grave of a young girl. The Corinthian order appeared in the late 5th century BC and is essentially a variant of the Ionic. Its capital was taller than the Doric and Ionic and was adorned with rows of acanthus leaves whose tops curl outwards from the column. Its first known appearance was inside the temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae in Arcadia (420 BC.) The Corinthian order was also used in the US Capitol building in Washington.

Above and below: The Temple of Zeus in central Athens showing Corinthian columns standing and in pieces. The Acropolis is in the background.

The columns were held together by pieces of lead inserted into holes made in the middle of each piece in the column. This allowed for some movement and prevented earthquake damage. The effectiveness of this technique can be seen in how well the Parthenon has withstood earthquakes over the centuries since its construction. Most of the destruction has been caused by human activities.

Mosaic
The ancient Greek world made an important contribution to the development of the art of mosaic. Mosaic is the art of decorating a surface with a design composed of closely set, variously coloured pieces of material such as pebbles, stone, tile or glass set into an adhesive ground. The use of coloured pebbles in floor and pavement mosaics was refined by Greek craftsmen in the 5th century BC, and had spread as an elegant, expensive flooring throughout Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean world by the 4th century BC. The oldest examples of mosaics in Greece can be seen in the ancient Macedonian cities of Aegae and Pella in the northern part of Hellas. Gradually, the desire for a smoother, polished floor, and greater complexity of design stimulated the change from pebble mosaic to tessellated mosaic. The latter was made of small oblong ‘tesserae’ of stone which could be laid flat and close together.
The Romans adopted the mosaic art form and lavishly paved their villas and public buildings.

The use of glass as mosaic material originated in the Hellenistic period (323 – 30BC) and remained important through the Byzantine era (mid 400’s to mid 1400’s AD) right up to the Renaissance.

In the late 4th century AD, mosaics became extensively used by craftsmen decorating Christian cathedrals and basilicas, and wall and vault mosaics remained the major form of decorative art in churches throughout the Byzantine era. Splendid examples of mosaic decorative art can be seen today in St. Sophia’s in Istanbul, St. Mark’s in Venice, indeed widely throughout the ‘ancient’ Mediterranean world.

The Logo and the Pin

The Athens Congress logo and pin were inspired by Athenian history. The logo shows a portion of the modern Athens Academy which was designed by the Danish-born architect Theophil Hansen, and built between 1859 and 1887. The logo shows a part of the frieze and Ionic columns. Long ago the philosopher Plato taught in an Athenian gymnasium called the Academy. (The word has also been adopted by the International Academy of Pathology.) Of interest, the Austrian Parliament building in Vienna was also designed by Hansen, in Greek revival style. Grecian architecture was chosen, as Greece was the home of democracy, and the beautiful Athena fountain in front of the Parliament was intended to represent Athena in her role as goddess of wisdom.

The ‘pin’ of the Congress features the Athenian owl. The particular design of this owl was taken from the coin, the ancient Athenian tetradrachma (value 4 drachmas.) This coin, with the owl on one side and the head of the goddess Athena on the other, was issued between 479 and 404 BC in Athens.

George Kontogeorgos,
with assistance from Roma and Robin Cooke.

Entrance to the Megaron Convention Centre

Inside the Megaron Convention Centre

Hilton Hotel

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Ima-Abasi Bassey and Eufemi Ogwnbinje, Nigeria

Jean Marie Dangou and Mohenu Isidore Jean Diomande, Senegal

Nermine Ehsan and Iman Adel, Egypt

Norain Karim, Malaysia and Helen Mahoney, Australia

Selina Akhtar, and an associate, Bangladesh

A group from China. Prof Wu, Beijing, centre and Pei Hui on his left, now in the USA

Gabriela Gohla, Aymai Alhabeeb and Abdilrazak Meliti from McMaster Uni, Canada.

Marianne and Claude Cuvelier, Belgium

Evans Myanon and Victor Murenda from Zambia

Peter Furness and Mike Wells both from UK

Samir Amr, Saudia Arabia, and pathologists from Morocco, Bahrain and Jordan

Dariusz Lange and Janusz Wasiluk

Gilles Tremblay, Canada

Francisco Couto, India, Michele Pellegrin de Villeneuve, France,
Drs. Bhardwaj and Harilal, India

Thai and German teams who each made a bid to host an International Congress. Dr.Thiti, Peter Meister, Dr. Pongsak, Dietmar Schmidt, Dr. Ben and Dr. Dussadee.

Pathologists from Brazilia, Brazil and on the right Nirmala Jambrhekan, Tata Memorial, Mumbai, India.

Jaime Rios Dalenz and a group of ladies from S America. On his right is Muriella Rondan from Uruguay, President of the Latin American Society of Pathology

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