The intangible origin of democracy in Athens, Greece. (PNYX)

I'm standing on the sacred emptiness
that defined a civilization define the history and progress of so many civilizations this unremarkable stone staircase this barren wall and the flat platform above it is what is called in English the Penix I could say it's called that in English I could say it's called that in the broken form of Anglo Greek how we mispronounced Greek in English and this is where Athenian democracy began but this is where it flourished in this absence in this nothingness in a very real sense there is nothing to see here and there's nothing to learn from standing on these rocks not even if you take the time to read a history book and figure out exactly at what point on the wall there used to be a statue of zeus or approximately where there used to be a water clock to time the proceedings when people gave lectures but if you wanted to come here to athens to in some sense touch the history of democracy you would not be going to that famous religious edifice on the opposite mountain facing us here you would be ascending these stairs more or less to the empty space of what now remains of the finnex the first parliament so to speak of ancient Athenian democracy