Ο κίνδυνος των ερειπίων εκ των κεραυνών
Part of : Αρχαιολογικά ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών ; Vol.II, No.1, 1969, pages 59-64
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59-64
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The danger of lightning on ruins
Section Title:
Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά
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During a storm in the night of the 16th of January this year, lightning struck the temple of Aphaia at Aegina. The results were unusually destructive. The SW corner column, which had been pre served up to about the middle, was hit (fig. 2). The rest had been restored by a new tambour of porous stone and the capital and architrave, both ancient, had been put back in their place (fig. 1).The destruction was merciless. The lightning obviously struck the lower half of the column, that is, the ancient part. It shattered the ancient column into countless pieces, the size of pebbles, and scattered these right through the length of the temple and beyond (figs. 3 - 4), as if it were a powerful explosive. A piece less than a metre long from the base of the column remained standing in its place, but it was split all the way down. The ancient capital and architrave collapsed simultaneously but were nearly undamaged (fig. 5 ). Because of the amazing violence of the phenomenon, my colleague Mr. Leon. Karapiperis, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Athens, was asked to study this unique case together with the responsible ephor, Mr. A. Vavritsas and myself. Mr. Karapiperis in fact considers this destruction unusual and will himself expose the scientific side of the fact.For us as archaeologists this is specially important from the point of view of defense against future destruction. For years now my attention has been turned to the frequency of thunder on the monuments of the Acropolis.During all classical antiquity, as far as I can remember, thunder is not mentioned in connection with the beautiful monuments of the Acropolis. However, since they have started to become ruins, they have often been hit. Obviously ruins attract thunder. The Propylaea were blown up during the Turkish occupation , then the Erechtheion (a harem at the time ), the ruined Tower of Kalaskopi (Goranon area), and in the last generation I think that the marbles of the Acropolis were hit three times, as well as the columns of Olympian Zeus and the Philopappos monument only a few years ago. The temples of Lindos and Phigaleia are two other examples moreover, and it is certain that the catalogue has not yet been finished. For this reason I have spoken about this to the UNESCO experts Professors Lemaire and Sneyers and Dr. Sonnier, who visited Greece last October. I have asked them to study this problem together with other factors harmful to antiquities.The idea of the usual lightning conductors as well as the metal rods has, of course, been discussed a long time ago. However, their application has not been advocated a) because they require great supervision so as not to cause more harm than good, and b) because the over - sensitive «esthè tes» the world over would find cause to grumble and to attack. Now the possibility of using the modern lightning - rods on the basis of ionization is being studied. I am afraid that not even this method is devoid of aesthetic blemishes, at least on the Acropolis, but perhaps the use of lightning – rods must be applied as soon as possible on the other antiquities which statistics prove to be particularly vulnerable to lightning, otherwise we will find ourselves in for even more painful surprises, perhaps even with human victims. The wrath of heaven is blind and does not strike Chubbs only nor even the ruins of Kalaskopi on the Taygetus.
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