This is really a "highlight" tour, encompassing Athens, Crete, the Peloponnese, and northern Greece in only 13 days; it might better be called a "whirlwind" tour. After seeing the Akropolis, Agora, and National Museum in Athens, we'll go to Crete to see the Minoan Museum in Iraklion, the palaces of Knossos and Mallia, and the mountain village of Drosia. Returning to the mainland, we go to the Peloponnese for four days. During this time we'll see the archaeological sites of Eleusis, Corinth, Mycenae, Argos, Elliniko, Vasses (the temple of Epikourios Apollo), and Olympia, and also some gorgeous mountain scenery in Arcadia (the villages of Laggadia, Dimitsana, Stamnitsa, and Andritsena). Then we'll go up to Delfi and from there to Kalambaka and the cliff-top monasteries of Meteora. Then north to Vergina (the spectacular tomb of Philip II) and by Mt Olympos to Volos, where we'll see the Archaeological Museum, the Neolithic site of Dimini, and the village of Makrinitsa on Mt Pelion.
March 15 Arrive Athens
If you’re coming to Greece from the US, you will have left the day before. The time difference between the two countries is 7 to 10 hours; if it’s 8 am in California (and 11 am in Toronto), it’s 6 pm the same day in Greece. The new airport of Athens is attractive and efficient, and easy to navigate. It’s a good idea to change some money in the banks at the airport; unlike some countries, banks at the airport and everywhere in Greece have approximately the same rate of exchange, which is always better than the rate outside Greece. After coming out the front door of the airport, you’ll see a line of taxis, and a corresponding line of people waiting for taxis. Take a taxi from the taxi stand to the HOTEL AUSTRIA, 7 MOUSON STREET, AKROPOLIS - FILOPAPPOU (telephone 923-5151). When you arrive at the hotel, tell the driver to wait while you go inside. Tell the desk clerk at the hotel you’re with Dick, and he’ll make sure you pay the right amount for the taxi (it should be around 30 euros) .
You or I can be contacted anytime at this Athens telephone number: 011-30-210-923-5151 (Hotel Austria). The FAX number is 011-30-210-924-7350. Dial all 15 digits from North America, only the last ten in Athens. If anyone might want to contact you, tell them to use these numbers and we will be notified immediately, wherever we are. Be sure that you, or whoever is calling, mention the name “Dick,” so as to be identified properly. I do not include numbers of all our hotels, since at most of them the desk clerks do not speak English (anyone calling probably would not be able to leave a message).
We'll meet in the hotel lobby around 7:30 PM to go out to dinner at a local restaurant.
View from the Austria Hotel, Athens
Today we'll visit the Akropolis and Agora.
We’ll meet in the hotel lobby for a brief discussion about Athens and the Akropolis, then take a 10-minute walk to the Akropolis entrance. On our way we’ll pass the restored Theater of Herodes Atticus (the Herodion), originally built in the 2nd century AD and still used for musical and theatrical events during the annual Athens Festival (June-September).
Excavations have shown that the Akropolis itself was inhabited as early as 5000 BC and in use continually through the Helladic (2800-1800) and Mycenean (1800-1100) periods. No remains save pottery survive from the Dark Age (1100-800), but during the Archaic period (800-500) several temples and other structures were built, all of which were destroyed during the sack of Athens by a Persian invasion in 480; the remains of these archaic buildings are housed in the Akropolis Museum. During the second half of the 5th century all the structures still to be seen on the Akropolis were built, first the Parthenon (447-438), then the Propylaia (437-432), the temple of Athena Nike (427-424), and the Erechtheion (completed around 395).
We enter through the Propylaia, the entrance gate on the west end of the hill; the little temple on the south-west corner is the Athena Nike, restored most recently in 1936-40. Proceeding along the north side of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion is on the left and may be visited first; closed off for restoration for many years, it was opened in 1989 and we can now walk entirely around it. It is a composite structure which was used for several cults. principally those of Athena, Poseidon, and Erechtheus (son of Erichthonios, a mythical half-serpent half-man king of Athens). The south portico is the famous Karyatid Porch: the Karyatids are the six columns in the shape of women. The columns in place are all replicas, one original having been removed by Lord Elgin and the other five kept in the Akropolis Museum.
Returning to the Parthenon, the north-east corner provides a good vantage to observe certain famous architectural refinements. The spaces between columns are not all the same, the corner columns are a bit thicker than the others, horizontal lines are curved and vertical lines are inclined. If you sight along the top step of the foundation, you will see the slight bulge of the center, which is repeated in the architrave above. All these innovations give the building an appearance of regularity and vertical lift from a distance (and it was from a distance, after all. that most people in antiquity viewed the Parthenon).
“Parthenon” means ‘virgin” and the temple was dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena, the patroness of Athens. The sculptures on the east pediment represented the birth of Athena (who leapt in full armor from the head of her father Zeus). The scene on the west pediment was the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. The metopes had scenes found on many classical temples: the war between the Centaurs and Lapiths, the war between the Giants and the Gods. and the war between Athens and the Amazons. The frieze along the outer wall of the inner temple represented the procession of the Greater Panathenaia festival. Much of the frieze, along with some metopes and pedimental sculptures, was removed by Lord Elgin in 1801 and is now in the British Museum (the “Elgin Marbles”).
The chief architects of the Parthenon were Iktinos and Kallikrates, and overall supervisor of the project was the famous sculptor Pheidias, who created the gold and ivory statue of Athena almost 40 feet high.
Although converted into a Christian basilica and, later. into a Moslem mosque, the Parthenon remained largely intact until 26 September 1687, when a mortar shot set off an explosion in the building, which was being used by the Turks as a gunpowder and munitions storehouse.
Just east of the Parthenon and below ground level is the Museum. Going though it clockwise, the north and back halls contain remains of pre-classical structures and the south halls contain artifacts from the Parthenon and Erechtheion. Specially interesting are the pedimental fragments from 6th century temples (the emphasis on serpentine shapes reflects the importance of snake-men in the mythical history of Athens), the Moschophoros (an early 6th century statue of a man carrying a calf), the Korai (archaic statues of maidens; the most famous is the Peplos Kore), the Kritias Boy (around 480, one of the earliest examples of the Classical style), and the few fragments from the Parthenon pediment not destroyed or carried off. The last two rooms contain what is left in Greece from the friezes of the Parthenon, Erechtheion, and Nike temple, and four of the original Karyatid columns.
From the wall along the north side of the Akropolis you have a good view of modern Athens, as well as the ancient Agora, the Roman forum, the National Cathedral, and the Parliament building on Syntagma Square. From the lookout point on the east end you can see the National Garden, the Stadium where the 1896 Olympics were held, and the huge Roman temple of Jupiter (2nd century AD). The south wall looks down on the theater of Dionysos (where the dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were performed) and the Roman theater of Herodes Atticus.
The Akropolis entrance is just a few yards from the Areopagos, a small hill just northwest of the Akropolis. Here, according to myth, the first jury trial was held, the trial of Orestes for the murder of his mother Klytemnestra; when the jury of 12 Athenian citizens voted 6 for acquittal, 6 to convict, Athena cast the deciding vote for acquittal and established the principle that an evenly split jury must decide for the defendant. During historical times the hill was the meeting place first for the aristocratic council of elders and later for the most serious trials (treason and homicide). In 51 AD St. Paul delivered here his sermon on the “Unknown God,” a copy of which is inscribed on a bronze plaque beside the stairs leading up the hill.
From the Areopagos we’ll walk down the hill to the Agora, the social and civic center of ancient Athens. In use throughout antiquity, the Agora was gradually covered over by newer dwellings, so that in 1931 when the American School of Classical Studies began systematic excavations, the only visible ancient building was the Doric temple at the northwest corner (the “Theseion”). We’ll begin by going through the Agora Museum, contained in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos; originally built by King Attalos II of Pergamum (159-138 BC), the stoa was rebuilt in 1953-56 thanks to contributions by private American donors. The museum, which contains some 180,000 objects (not all on display), offers a unique perspective on Athenian history from Neolithic times through the Roman period. It is arranged chronologically, in a single long hall beginning with pre-Bronze Age finds and objects from the many Mycenean burials in the area and proceeding through historical times (each century takes up about 20 feet). Almost all the objects are very well described on labels by the American excavators, but I’ll mention a few of special interest: in the middle of the hall, on the left, are a klepsydra (water clock) used to limit the times of orators’ speeches, a kleroterion (lottery machine) used to select public officials (the radical democracy of 5th century Athens believed all citizens were equally capable of fulfilling official duties), a large bronze shield captured from the Spartans in 425 b.c., and a terracotta potty chair; opposite these are a beautiful selection of black-figure and red-figure vases and an entire case of ostraka (broken pieces of pottery used in banishment elections). Ostracism was practiced in Athens from 487 to 417 BC: every year the Assembly voted on whether or not to hold an ostracism; if they held one, each citizen wrote on a sherd the name of the person he wanted to be exiled; if over 6000 votes were cast, the person with the most votes had to leave town for 10 years; in general, the most popular and successful public leaders were selected for ostracism.
Because the Agora was in use for so long and so much rebuilding took place, there is now very little to see of the earlier structures. Walking across the north side of the Agora from the museum to the Theseion temple, we pass by three colossal statues of a Giant and two Tritons; these were the porch columns of a huge music hall, the Odeion of Agrippa (Emperor Augustus’ son-in-law). Next we see a large altar, perhaps the altarof Zeus Agoraios (Zeus of the Agora) and a headless statue of the Emperor Hadrian. Along the west side of the Agora, below the Theseion. are the government buildings, a Bouleuterion (Council Chamber) and a Tholos (the name given to any circular temple or building) where the 50 Council members in session (Prytaneis) dined and where a third of them stayed 24 hours a day for a month (the 5th century Council had 500 members but only 50 of them were in session each of the 10 months).
The Theseion (Temple of Theseus) is wrongly named: the building is actually a temple of Hephaistos. the god of fire and metallurgy, and should be called the Hephaisteion. It is the best preserved Doric temple in existence. Fighting centaurs appear on the west pediment, which may have portrayed the battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths.
Athens, Agora: Temple of Hephaistos
It will be lunch time when we leave the Agora; after lunch in the Plaka (the “Old Town” of Athens), we’ll walk around the area, visiting Syntagma Square and the Parliament building, in front of which the Changing of the Guard occurs every hour on the hour. The rest of the day is free.
MARCH 17 Athens
This morning we'll take the
Metro to the National Archaeological Museum.
Athens, National Museum: Zeus
After the Archaeological Museum, the afternoon is free. There
will be time for those who wish to visit the newly-reopened Benaki
Museum or the Cycladic Museum (or both, since
they're down the street from one another.
MARCH 18
This morning we’ll go for a walk around Iraklion; particularly interesting is the open market. At the end of our walk we’ll arrive at the Minoan Museum, which houses the most important finds from Knossos and other Minoan sites.
The museum is very easy to navigate. It’s arranged chronologically; you walk up the right-hand set of rooms, then back the left-hand rooms, then upstairs to the frescoes, then downstairs to an annex of post-Minoan Greek and Roman objects. Since the best Minoan art is miniature (some of it can only be seen through a magnifying lens), I would like to compel you to look at everything in detail. Therefore, instead of giving you the location of the most important objects, I will give you an assignment, to find the following: 1) the House Mosaic; 2) the Snake Goddesses; 3) the Phaistos Disc; 4) the double bee pendant (on the entrance ticket); 5) signet seals showing 2 rabbits dueling and a mouse sitting on a stool; 6) any evidence that the Minoans knew the wheel; 7) a boar’s tooth helmet; 8) Linear A and Linear B tablets; 9) Kamares pottery; 10) the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus.
Knossos: the "Queen's Chambers"
Late afternoon (when it’s cooler and less crowded) we’ll go by public bus (about 10 minutes) to the so-called Palace of Minos at Knossos, just south of Iraklion. This was the largest and most important of the Minoan palaces in Crete, and has been partially reconstructed, chiefly by the original excavator, Sir Arthur Evans. The name “Minoan,” derived from the mythical king Minos, was used by Evans to designate the Bronze Age civilization of Crete (3000-1000 BC).
Although Knossos was inhabited far back into Neolithic times, the first palaces were built around 2200 BC. The Minoan civilization was extremely advanced, the first “high culture” in Europe, and rivalled the contemporary cultures of Babylon and Egypt. Sometime around 1750 (or earlier) the first palaces were destroyed, perhaps by earthquake, and new palaces (the “Second Palaces”) were built; these in turn were destroyed during the first half of the 15th century (or more than a century earlier, if the destruction resulted from the volcanic eruptions at Santorini). The best Minoan pottery (especially Kamares Ware, beautifully-shaped polychrome cups and vases with eggshell-thin walls) was made during the First Palace period, while the best jewelry, engravings, and frescoes are from the Second Palace period. The Minoans also had writing systems, both hieroglyphic and linear (“Linear A”), but these have not yet been deciphered. Later Linear A was adapted by the Myceneans to write Greek; this script, called Linear B, is a syllabary (each symbol represents a syllable) and has been found on more than 4000 tablets from mainland Greece and Crete.
There are two important things to keep in mind as you walk through the ruins: (I) at least 75% of what you see has been reconstructed, much of it to conform with Evans’ theories of Minoan history, and these theories have recently come under heavy criticism; (2) the Minoans were not Greek, although they greatly influenced the first Greeks (the Myceneans) in art and architecture; their impact on historical Greece seems to have consisted mostly of certain religious traditions and practices (e.g., the Eleusinian religion).
We enter (after running a gauntlet of tour guides) near two large round holes, perhaps cisterns. The main entrances were at the north and south ends, and led into the central court: on the east and west sides of the court were complexes of rooms and apartments, several stories high, ventilated and lit by light wells. At the northwest corner of the court is a throne room with nice griffin frescoes (restored); on the floor above, around a light well, are replicas of many of the frescoes found at Knossos (the originals are in the Iraklion Museum). All along the west side are storehouses; in the southwest corner, at the end of a processional corridor, are a propylaion and great staircase. On the east side of the court is another staircase, called by Evans the “Grand Staircase,” because he thought it led to the royal living quarters; this staircase leads down through three levels around a light well into a maze of rooms, one of which is called the Throne Room and another the Queen’s Bedroom. Outside these rooms, alongside a narrow stairs, is a storehouse of giant pithoi, 6-foot high storage vases; beneath a metal grill nearby is a good example of the terra cotta plumbing which brought running water to the palace; in the room of the Medallion Vases a small section of floor is cut away around a column base. Northwest of the palace is a paved road, perhaps the oldest in Europe, which widens as it ends at shallow stairs leading to the north entrance.
Knossos: Bull-Leaping Fresco
Tonight we’ll eat at an ouzeri on the harbor, and there will be an opportunity to see, hear, and take part in Cretan dancing and lyra music at a famous taverna.
MARCH 19 Crete
Today we’ll go by bus to
Faistos, an important Minoan palace on the Messara plain in southern
Crete.
Faistos: the Megaron
On the way to Faistos we’ll stop at the archaeological site of Gortyna, where the famous archaic Law Code of Gortyna was found. Then we’ll continue to Faistos, a palace almost as large as that at Knossos. Built at the same time as Knossos, but more carefully and with better material, Faistos is our example of an unrestored Minoan palace.
From Faistos we'll drive north for a late lunch at Drosia, in a verdant mountain valley, where all the residents have the same last name and the food is unique.
Tonight we'll return to Athens.
MARCH 20 Nafplion
This morning we leave by bus for the Peloponnese. As we drive west out of Athens we’ll pass Daphni Monastery (5th or 6th century, rebuilt 1080), the western extension of Peiraeus port, and enormous oil refineries. Our first stop will be at ancient Eleusis, 15 miles west of Athens.
Eleusis was the home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the most important cult religion of antiquity before Christianity. Like most ancient religious centers, Eleusis was used for cult practices far into prehistoric times, but its fame and importance greatly increased during the 6th century BC, when a major building project was carried out by the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos. Another large-scale reconstruction occurred during the 2nd century AD, especially during the reigns of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. The cult continued to function until the end of the 4th century.
The Eleusinian religion was based on the myth of Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone). After Kore had been carried off by her uncle Hades to be his bride and the queen of the underworld, Demeter searched for her everywhere; when she came to Eleusis, she disguised herself as an old woman and sat by a well; the women of Eleusis, coming to draw water, tried to talk to Demeter but got no response until a woman named Baubo or Iambe exposed herself to the goddess; Demeter smiled and told the women the fiction that she was Doso from Crete, that she had been captured by pirates, and was now wandering friendless and penniless; having secured a position as nursemaid to the infant son of King Keleus and Queen Metaneira, Demeter held the baby every night in the fire, trying to burn away its mortality; one night Metaneira came upon this scene and cried out; Demeter revealed her true identity, commanded the Eleusinians to build her a temple, and sealed herself inside; since she was the goddess of fertility and vegetation, nothing grew during her isolation; finally Zeus, realizing that without crops, animals, or humans being born there was no future for the gods, commanded his brother Hades to return Kore to her mother; Hades did so, but since Kore had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld she was compelled to spend half of each year above the earth and half below (in fact, despite this arrangement, we never hear of Kore/Persephone henceforth other than as the queen of the underworld).
The annual ceremony of the Greater Eleusinia took place every September; initiates holding a small pig purified themselves (and the pig) in the sea, then marched in procession to Eleusis for several days of varying activity, sometimes orgiastic, sometimes in silent mourning; at the climax of the rites, the high priest (Hierophant) and priestess enacted the marriage of Zeus and Demeter (perhaps quite graphically, as analogy with other cult rituals indicates) and the birth of their child; the celebrants handled sacred objects (e.g., a triangle, a serpent, a fennel stalk, a women’s comb, all condemned as obscene by early Christian converts from the mysteries) and then, stunned by the sudden appearance of a great fire from the inner shrine, were shown the supreme sacred object (probably a sheaf of wheat).
The great attraction of the religion was surely that it promised a special sort of afterlife to its initiates. However, since revelation of the nature of the religion and its rites was strictly forbidden, we have no sure idea of what this afterlife consisted. Since the charter myth of the religion concerns the separation of a mother and her child and the eventual reunion of mother and child, I would suppose that the afterlife promised to good Eleusinians was in some way represented as a return to the blissful situation of earliest childhood, before that fateful separation of mother and child, the basis of all subsequent anxiety, took place. Our only ancient evidence says merely that the Eleusinians after death continued to practice the Eleusinian mysteries. In any case, almost anything would be preferable to the usual Greek concept of the afterlife, which regarded the souls of the dead as insensate and powerless, flitting around in the darkness of the underworld and making squeaking noises like bats.
Eleusis: Greater Propylaia
Entering from the east we are in a large forecourt, with a temple of Artemis and a well. We pass through what was the Greater Propylaia, patterned after the Akropolis Propylaia; part of the pediment is in the forecourt, and the relief bust on it may be Marcus Aurelius, who built the Propylaia; we then pass through a second gate, the Lesser Propylaia (forbidden to the non-initiated in antiquity under pain of death); to the right is the Ploutonion, an area and cavern sacred to Plouto; we then come to the Telesterion, or Temple of Demeter, with an inner sanctuary, the Anaktoron; the chief ceremonies of the cult took place in this temple, which was about 170 feet square with 42 columns and eight rows of seats on each side; West is a late Bouleuterion (Council hall) and above is the Museum, very small and very interesting. Outside is a beautiful Roman sarcophagus of the 2nd century AD. Inside are 6 small rooms: 1 contains a magnificent archaic amphora with scenes of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops Polyphemos and Perseus fleeing the pumpkin-headed Gorgon sisters of Medousa; 2 has a cast of the Demeter/Kore relief we saw in the National Museum; 4 contains two models of the site (the lower is the Peisistratid [6th century BC] and the upper is the 2nd century AD Roman); 5 has part of a caryatid column from the Lesser Propylaia and a piece of burial cloth, the only surviving example from Classical times; 6 has pottery representing continuous habitation from the early Bronze Age to the 5th century AD, including fertility idols of the Cycladic type.
Continuing west from Eleusis, we pass the island of Salamis; at the narrowest point of the straits between Salamis and the mainland, a Greek fleet under the Athenian admiral Themistokles won a decisive victory over the Persian fleet of Xerxes in September 480, ending the great Persian invasion and establishing Athens’ dominance in Greece.
About 40 minutes after Eleusis we come to the Corinth Canal, where we’ll stop for lunch and a walk over the canal bridge. Although several attempts were made in antiquity to dig a canal through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, none succeeded and the canal was finally completed in 1893. It is 4 miles long, 80 feet wide, and 26 feet deep; from the bridge down to the water is 290 feet.
The Corinth Canal
Ten minutes’ drive from the canal brings us to ancient Corinth.
Corinth: Peirene Fountain
Because of its location
at the isthmus joining the
Peloponnese to north Greece, Corinth was one of the most important and
richest commercial centers of
antiquity; its citizens were known for their dissipation and its
prostitutes
for their beauty. In 146 BC a Roman army under Lucius Mummius defeated
the Achaean League and, to confirm the final domination of Rome over
Greece, Mummius ordered Corinth to be razed to the ground. A century
later Julius Caesar established a colony at Corinth and during the
Roman Empire Corinth recovered its former importance and wealth. It is
estimated that Corinth had some 300,000 citizens (and an even larger
number of slaves).
The Corinth excavations cover an enormous area and most of them are
inaccessible; the site we’ll visit is the center of the ancient city.
Immediately
upon entering the site we come to the small museum; the room on the
right
contains objects from the Greek period, that on the left from the
Roman,
and the rear courtyard has a frieze from the theater and various
headless
statues. After leaving the museum we pass an instructive display of
column
capitals, then turn left to the archaic Temple of Apollo (6th century
BC), the only substantial structure not razed by the Romans. North of
the temple is the Roman forum, surrounded by Roman commercial buildings
and containing a high platform (Bema) where Roman magistrates addressed
the people. From the east end of the Forum steps lead down to the
Lechaion
Road; on the left are remains of the “Captives’ Facade,” two columns of
which (in the shape of barbarian captives) we saw in the museum. On the
east side of the road are the famous Spring of Peirene and a
well-preserved
Roman public toilet.
South of the city towers the acropolis of ancient Corinth, the
“Acrocorinth.” The top is covered with Byzantine, Venetian,
and Turkish fortifications, but hardly anything remains from antiquity.
From Corinth we drive south (about 1 hour) to Nafplion. On the way we
pass Nemea, where the Nemean Games, one of the four great Panhellenic
athletic festivals, were held and where Herakles, the greatest hero of
Greek
myth, accomplished his first Labor by killing the Nemean Lion. Halfway
between Corinth and Nafplion we can see Mycenae on a hillside to the
left, and, a little further on, Tiryns, another Bronze Age citadel.
Mycenae, about a half hour’s drive north
of Nafplion, is
of course the major Bronze Age site on mainland Greece. In myth it was
the home of Agamemnon. commander of the Greek army which fought against
Troy, and historically it was the most powerful Greek state during the
last third of the Bronze Age (1600-1100 BC), which is why this period
is called Mycenean. Heinrich Schliemann
excavated here in 1874-76 and found in Royal Grave Circle A the rich
treasures which proved to him that Agamemnon really lived and that
Homer’s
story of the Trojan War was history, not myth. Mycenean culture
and art were rich and sophisticated, absorbing influences from the high
cultures of Egypt and Crete and transforming mainland Greece into a
high
culture in its own right.
The myth of Mycenae is the story of the Pelopid dynasty. Pelops, who
gave his name to the Peloponnese (Island of Pelops), had two sons,
Atreus
and Thyestes. Atreus became king of Mycenae but punished his
brother, who had an adulterous affair with Atreus’ wife Airope, by
forcing him
to eat his two sons for dinner. Atreus had two sons, Menelaus and
Agamemnon, who married sisters; Menelaus married Helen and Agamemnon
married Klytemnestra. When Helen ran off with the Trojan prince Paris,
Agamemnon and Menelaus became commanders-in-chief of the great
expedition which fought and won the Trojan War. When Agamemnon returned
from the war, Klytemnestra was not overjoyed to see him; she had taken
a lover (Thyestes’ son Aigisthos) and Agamemnon, who had earlier
sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia so that favorable winds would blow
his fleet to Troy, now drove up to the palace with his new concubine,
the Trojan princess Kassandra. Klytemnestra therefore invited Agamemnon
to come in and take a bath; she gave him a garment to
put on (with no holes for his head and arms) and while he stood there
with
this bag on his head she killed him with three blows of an axe. Later
Orestes, the exiled son of Agamemnon and Klytemnestra, returned to
Mycenae and killed his mother to avenge his father; for his crime of
matricide he was driven mad by the Furies (mythic emblems of guilt)
until finally, in the Attic
version, he was acquitted at the first Areopagos trial.
Although the Bronze Age began in Greece around the middle of the 3rd
millennium BC., the first Indo-European Greek speakers arrived around
2000 and
within a few centuries reached a position of dominance. During the
Mycenean
Period they built great palaces and established relations from Egypt
to Turkey and the Black Sea. During the 12th century Mycenean
civilization
came to an end, for reasons still not entirely clear. The collapse
coincided with general disruption in the eastern Mediterranean area and
may be due, at least partially, to the raids of the mysterious “Sea
Peoples” who appear in Egyptian records. A major role may also have
been played by the movement into central Greece and the Peloponnese of
new groups of Greek speaking peoples from the northwest, the so-called
“Dorian invasion.” Most survivors of this turbulent period probably
remained in Greece, but the level of
culture changed radically; writing, building in stone, and
representational
art disappeared, and cultural depression and poverty were wide-spread.
A
Mycenean group fled to the island of Cyprus soon after the Dorian
invasion;
they were followed, toward the end of the 2nd millennium, by
large-scale
migrations from the Greek mainland to the eastern Aegean islands and
the
western coast of Turkey. For the next 500 years the center of Greek
culture
was not in Greece but in Asia Minor; here the old stories of heroes and
a
glorious past, kept alive by generations of oral poets, became the
basis
of Greek myth as we know it.
Mycenae: Tholos tomb
Mycenae: gold death mask
Mycenae: Lion Gate
We enter the citadel of Mycenae through the famous Lion Gate, the first
monumental sculpture in Europe (13th century BC). Immediately we come
to Grave Circle A, a royal cemetery in which Schliemann found six shaft
graves, 19 skeletons, and the incredibly rich burial furnishings which
made his discovery one of the great archaeological finds of all time. A
ramp and stairs lead up from the grave circle to the palace on the top
of
the hill; unfortunately little remains of the palace except for a Great
Court and a megaron (a room with central hearth and inner columns).
From the top of the hill, with its view commanding the valley all the
way down to Argos and Nafplion, we can follow a path down the back of
the site to the Postern Gate and the Secret Cistern, a pitch-dark
tunnel leading down some 80 steps through the solid rock. We can then
return to the Lion Gate around the north side of the hill.
Outside the city walls, just south of the site entrance. are an earlier
royal grave circle (Circle B, discovered in 1952) and two “tholos”
tombs which we can visit. Around 1500 BC the royal families here
and
at other Mycenean sites changed their burial style from shaft graves to
tholos tombs, enormous circular rooms with domed roofs as high as 50
feet.
The tholos closest to Grave Circle B was excavated by Mrs. Schliemann
and
is called the Tomb of Klytemnestra; it is one of the latest and most
finely-constructed of the tholoi. The other, called the Tomb of
Aigisthos. is much earlier and its roof has collapsed. Returning down
the modern road about a half mile we come to the most famous tholos,
the Tomb of Agamemnon; the half-columns which decorated its doorway are
in the Mycenean Room of the National Museum.
Maybe we’ll have lunch in the village of modern Mycenae; restaurants
here have quaint mythical titles, like Orestes Cafe or La Belle Helene;
the Klytemnestra Restaurant specializes in well-done chops!
By late afternoon we’ll be in Nafplion, a beautiful port city on the
Argolic Gulf. After theWar of Independence Nafplion was the first
capital of Greece, from 1828 to 1834, and it remains one of the most
attractive cities
in Greece. The architecture is unmistakably Venetian, there is even a
marble piazza (Syntagma Square), and a striking castle, the Bourzi
Palace (built in 1471). stands on an island in the bay. Above Nafplion
are the fortifications of Its Kale (Three Castles) and, higher still,
the fortress of Palamidi.
Tonight we’ll have dinner in Nafplion.
Nafplion: Bourzi Palace
Our first stop today is Argos, about 15 minutes from Nafplion.
Argos was of great importance in Greek myth, especially because of the hero Perseus, whose grandfather Akrisios was king of Argos. Warned by an oracle that he would be killed by the future son of his daughter Danae, Akrisios locked up Danae in a bronze dungeon. Discovering one day that she had given birth to a son (Perseus: his father was either Zeus, who entered the dungeon in a golden rain-shower, or Akrisios’ twin brother Proitos), Akrisios locked both Danae and her son in a chest and threw it into the sea at Nafplion. It washed ashore on the island of Seriphos and was found by a fisherman Diktys, who was the rightful king of Seriphos but had lost his throne to his evil brother Polydektes. Some years later Polydektes discovered Danae and fell in love with her; wanting to get Perseus out of the way, he ordered him to bring back the head of the gorgon Medousa (a female monster with snakes for hair, whose look turned anyone whose eyes met hers into stone).
With the help of the goddess Athena Perseus decapitated Medousa and flew back on winged sandals to save his mother. On the way he passed over Ethiopia, where he saw a princess about to be devoured by a sea monster. When King Kepheus told Perseus that he had been obliged to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda to be freed from the monster, Perseus promised to save her and kill the monster if he could marry Andromeda. Kepheus agreed, but when Perseus had accomplished the task Kepheus told him that Andromeda was already engaged to marry his twin brother Phineus. Perseus used the head of Medousa to turn Phineus and his men to stone, then flew with Andromeda back to Seriphos where he did the same to Polydektes and his army. He now restored Diktys to his rightful position as king of Seriphos, then returned to Argos with his bride and mother. Since Akrisios had left town after learning that Perseus was alive, Perseus now became king of Argos. Years later, he entered an athletic contest in Larissa in north Greece, where Akrisios was living under an assumed name. Perseus threw his discus wildly and it struck his grandfather, who was sitting in the stands, on the foot and killed him instantly.
At Argos we'll see the amazing ancient theater, cut into the solid rock of the hillside and once holding 20,000 spectators. Near Argos is the mysterious ancient Pyramid of Elliniko and the Church of the Life-Giving Spring (a spring gushes from beneath the church, aand its chapels are in adjoining caves).
In the afternoon we'll go to Nemea (a UC Berkeley excavation), where we'll visit the Temple of Zeus, the stadium, and the fine new museum.
Nemea: Stadium
After Nemea we'll drive up into
the mountains of Arcadia to the village Laggadia.
Vassai: Temple of Apollo Epikourios
Dimitsana
Stemnitsa
MARCH 22 Olympia Vasses
This morning we'll drive through some of the most beautiful scenery of Arcadia, like Andritsena, Stemnitsa, and Dimitsana on our way to the temple of Epikourios Apollo at Vassai, one of the most dramatic and architecturally significant temples of the classical period. Then we'll drive west to Olympia.
MARCH 23 Erateini
It’s
not difficult to see why the ancients chose Olympia for the Games and
the sanctuary of Zeus; it is now, and certainly was, one of the most
beautiful places in Greece. The confluence of seven rivers and
sufficient rainfall provide a green and shady setting that is
reminiscent of northern Italy.
Predictably,
Olympia was a cult center before Mycenean
times, although the official date for the first Olympic Games is 776
BC. Originally a local festival of Elis (the territory of Olympia), the
Games became the great panhellenic festival during the Archaic period
and continued to be held until suppressed by the anti-pagan edict of
Emperor Theodosius I in 391 AD. The Games were held every four years;
ten months before their occurrence the competitors began to train; they
spent the last month at Olympia and during the actual week of the Games
a Sacred Truce was observed by all Greeks. Competitors had to be native
speakers of Greek (although in the last phase Romans were admitted),
and no married women could be present under penalty of death.
The list of events was periodically augmented, and came to include the
foot-race, boxing, chariot-racing, horse-racing, the Pentathlon
(jumping, wrestling, running, spear and discus throwing), and the
Pankration (a form of wrestling in which everything was allowed but
biting and gouging). To win at Olympia was the greatest honor a Greek
could attain, promising immortal fame (as
the Victory Odes of the 5th century poet Pindar declare) not only for
him
but for his family and city as well.
In myth Herakles is the founder of the Games. At the first Games he was
the only contestant, which was acceptable for the running and throwing
events but extremely boring in the case of boxing and wrestling, so
boring,
in fact, that his father Zeus, who was present as a spectator, entered
the wrestling match against Herakles and grappled him to a draw. Other
versions say that the Games were founded by another person with the
same name, Herakles the Daktyl, who was only as big as a finger. or by
Pelops to commemorate his victory over the king of Elis.
King Oinomaos of Elis had a daughter Hippodameia but refused to allow
her to marry, either because he was in love with her himself or because
a
Delphic oracle warned that he would be killed by his daughter’s
husband.
He compelled any suitor to compete in a chariot race against him and,
since he had the fastest horses in the world, he always won (and
celebrated
his victory by attaching the loser’s head to his palace wall). When
Pelops
arrived, Hippodameia fell in love with him and persuaded her father’s
charioteer Myrtilos to sabotage Oinomaos' chariot. The chariot crashed
and, as Oinomaos lay dying, he cursed Myrtilos; later Myrtilos
assaulted Hippodameia and, thrown from a cliff by Pelops, cursed Pelops
(it is this curse which, through Pelops’ sons Atreus and Thyestes,
extended down through the royal house of Mycenae).
Olympia Museum: Hermes of Praxiteles
Olympia Museum: helmet of Miltiades
The site is across the street (separate ticket). Keeping to the right after going through the entrance, we come first to the large Gymasium, then through the wrestling and socializing area, the Palaistra, to the workship of Pheidias. This is the same Pheidias who supervised the building of the Parthenon in Athens, and he had the same function for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The building was later used as a Byzantine church, but in 1958 a cup was found with Pheidias’ name on it. South is the Leonidaion, an elaborate guest-house for distinguished visitors (later the residence of the Roman governor); in the center courtyard you can see the brick walls of a curving pool; going from here to the Temple of Zeus, we enter the Sacred Grove, or Altis. The temple is one of the largest Greek temples, and the statue of seated Zeus within was one of the Seven Wonders of the world; it was almost 40 feet high and covered with gold and ivory (it supposedly was carried off to Constantinople after the cessation of the Games and was destroyed in a fire). Continuing east from the temple we pass the Stoa of Echo, the nymph who loved Narcissus, then through the athletes’ tunnel to the Stadium where the foot-races were held. Returning to the entrance we go by the Treasuries, the Metroon, or Temple of the Mother of the Gods, the Exedra of Herodes, the 7th century Temple of Hera, and the Philippeion, a round structure, or tholos, built by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, in his own honor.
Olympia: Temple of Zeus
Venetian harbor at Nafpaktos
We'll drive up into the foothills of Mount Parnassos to visit the Oracle of Apollo at Delfi. Delfi was the most famous oracle of the ancient world (remember that an oracle was a place or a message, not a person), already held in highest esteem at the time of Homer (8th century). Here questions were asked of the god Apollo (mostly by rulers and governments in the earlier phase, by individuals in the later phase) and his answer was transmitted by a priestess, the Pythia, who babbled something incoherent which was translated into hexameter verse by the college of priest-poets. The petitioner would first purify himself in the sacred Kastalian spring, then write his question on a lead tablet, and wait for his turn to submit it. The order of submission was determined by lottery, unless one was granted the right of promanteia (the privilege of cutting in line), presumably in return for a handsome gift to the sanctuary; an extant inscription just below the Temple of Apollo reads “Delfi grants to the people of Chios the right of promanteia (cutting the line).” The oracles were characteristically vague or ambiguous, thus increasing immeasurably their odds of success.
In myth Delfi (like almost all oracles) was at first the possession of Gaia (Earth), who was the first to utter prophecies. Later Apollo killed the great serpent which guarded the site and took it over (Pytho, the early name of Delfi, and Pythia, the priestess, may be words derived not from python [serpent] but from pythao [a verb “to rot”], since Apollo left the body of the serpent to rot in the sun).
We’ll begin with the museum (the display labels are mostly in Greek and French, so if you don’t know one of these languages attach yourself to someone who does).
We go up the entrance stairs to the first exhibit, a large omphalos (navel stone). Zeus saw where two eagles, flying from the ends of the earth, met; this place was Delfi, the navel of the earth. The following rooms contain in order the Sphinx of the Naxians; a huge archaic sculpture which stood atop a 30-foot column, and the pediment and frieze from the Treasury of the Siphnians; large, very early bronze shields; two kouros statues of Kleobis and Biton, two youths proclaimed by Solon to be the most fortunate persons in the world, since they pulled their mother’s chariot to the Argive Heraion, fell asleep in the temple, and never awoke; a treasure of gold, silver, and ivory objects found in 1939 under a path below the Temple of Apollo; sculpture from the Treasury of the Athenians; statuary from the archaic Temple of Apollo (this temple, called the Alkmaionid temple because it was paid for by the aristocratic Athenian clan of the Alkmaionidai, was the second on the site and was destroyed by an earthquake in 373 BC). The Alkmaionid temple was quickly rebuilt, and the new temple’s repair by Domitian at the end of the 1st century a.d. is commemorated by an inscription; a rare and important inscription of a hymn with musical notation. objects from the Tholos, a round temple in the lower shrine; 4th century sculptures, including three enormous dancing girls on a column which was the base for a tripod, and the votive offering of Daochos, a family group tracing his genealogy; the highlight of the museum (and perhaps of all museums) is the bronze statue of the Charioteer in; this spectacular piece, from around 475 BC, stands poised at the end of the Archaic age, on the verge of motion and the Classical style.
Turning left from the Museum entrance, we take the paved path to the site entrance (separate ticket). As we begin up the slope after the entrance we come first to the Offerings of the Arcadians and the Spartan Monument of the Admirals, two rows of statue bases, then two semi-circular Argive monuments, followed by a large number of treasuries, including those of the Sikyonians, the Siphnians, the Thebans, and the Athenians (reconstructed). Next is a small Council Chamber near the site of the column which held the Sphinx of the Naxians, the place at which the gold and silver treasures in the museum were found, and the Treasury of the Corinthians. Below the Temple of Apollo is the Stoa of the Athenians, a colonnade honoring the victory over the Persians in 480, and before the Temple is the Altar of Apollo, dedicated by the people of Chios (with the aforementioned inscription granting Chios the nght of promanteia). A reconstructed pillar held an equestrian statue of Prusias, king of Bithynia in the 2nd century BC.
The great Temple of Apollo was the actual site of the oracle, perhaps in an underground chamber. Above the temple is a small but well-preserved theater, built in the 4th century and restored by the Romans. A steep but worthwhile walk leads from the theater to the Stadium, the best-preserved in Greece; it held 7,000 spectators and is still used for theatrical and musical events. After returning downhill to the entrance we turn left and follow the path to the Kastalian Spring; a little below the spring is a refreshment terrace (much needed by those who’ve gone all the way to the stadium) with a good view of the lower site. The large, recently-excavated gymnasium area is now open to visitors; below it is the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, which contains an old and a new temple of Athena, two treasuries, and a beautiful, partially-reconstructed 4th century Tholos.
After seeing Delfi we'll drive north to Kalambaka in Thessaly.
MARCH 25 Volos
Kalambaka is the town of the Meteora (24 Orthodox monasteries perched on sheer precipices). Long ago under water, the rocks have been wierdly shaped and pitted by countless centuries of wind and rain. The recesses and their inaccessibility attracted early hermits and monks to the place, and during the 14th century the first monasteries were built. Once crowded and prosperous, they became virtually deserted during the last century, although a current renaissance in monasticism is accompanied by large building projects at several of the bigger monasteries. We’ll visit either Varlaam or Metamorphosis, and see the chapel (with frescoes depicting every possible way to become a martyr), the museum, and the platform from which rope nets are let down several hundred feet by a windlass; this was until 70 years ago the only means of entrance to the monasteries and still the only way to transport goods and materials. Male visitors are not allowed to wear shorts in the monasteries, and women must wear a skirt or dress and have their shoulders covered.
After seeing the monasteries we'll drive north through beautiful scenery to Vergina, where the new state-of-the-art museum contains the Macedonian royal burial mound and the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
Then we'll drive south around Mount Olympus to Volos, where we'll spend the night. Volos is a wonderful port city famous for its ouzeris (waterfront restaurants specializing in the seafood appetizers that are served with the anise-flavored liquor ouzo).
MARCH 26 Athens
Today we'll see some sights around Volos, including the Archaeological Museum, best known for its remarkable Neolithic holdings, and the Neolithic site Dimini, a suburb of Volos. Then we'll drive south to Athens, stopping briefly at stop briefly at Thermopylae, scene of one of the most famous battles in antiquity; here King Leonidas and 300 Spartans, along with 700 Thespians, all perished trying to delay the advance of Xerxes and the Persians in 480 BC.
MARCH 27 Departure