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The Assomatos or Monastery of the Holy Angels The Assomatos or Monastery of the Holy Angels (literally the "disembodied ones") is a humbler foundation on the outskirts of Athens, on the slopes of Lycabettus. The church has been renovated, and there is little Byzantine work to be seen. A few Brothers still live in the shady court that surrounds it and lead a life of passive benevolence. The Government has decreed that the foundation must lapse on the death of the present Brotherhood, so no new Brothers are enrolled. The old inhabitants do not seem afflicted by the decree. They crack their jokes, and keep their birthday parties, unmindful of the death-sentence hanging over their home, and the atmosphere of the cypress-shaded courtyard is one of cheerful domesticity. Small and muscular fowls run in and out of the stately gateway. The soldiers swing past to their barracks or to the cavalry stables next door. The bugle practice of the recruits outside goes on without interruption, animated if discordant. At all times of the year goatherds and their flocks gather round the monastery--many of them no doubt bringing their annual rents, for the Brotherhood still owns tracts of grazing-ground on the slopes of Hymettus. From this and other tokens it is clear that the Monastery of the Holy Angels was once a wealthy and important landowner. The brethren were then workers on their own estates, and were probably successful farmers. The little white dome is now half-hidden by the giant cypresses around it. The olive wood which the Greek Government gave as a site for the English and American Schools of Archæology was cut out of the monastery grounds. In contrast with the cheerful worldliness of the "Holy Angels" is the absolute desolation of Kaisariani, once a much larger and more important foundation. It is now ruined and deserted. Little is known of its history. Its architecture would date it to somewhere about the eleventh century, and its name may imply that it was an imperial foundation. Or again, it is just as likely that it may not. Now it has become the usual noonday halting-place on the climb to the summit of Hymettus. It is a spot of rare beauty. A little spring rises near, and a grove of plane-trees have their thirsty roots well nourished by the moisture. It has been suggested that this rivulet is a tributary of the Ilissus, which was known to the ancients as Eridanus, and that the convent stands on the site of an old temple to Aphrodite. A marble ram's head of classical design was placed by the Turks at the mouth of the spring. When Mohammed II entered Athens in 1458 it was the Abbot of Kaisariani who handed the keys of the town to the conqueror, a time-serving action that is said to have been rewarded by exemption from taxation. Home