The Argolid Pt. 1 (APRIL 7, 2009)

Hello again! Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date. I've been busy here, and with all the stuff we do, I just feel so exhausted. Anyhow, this post picks up where the last one left off. On Tuesday, I had to get up early to catch the bus on our three day excursion to the Argolid, the region in the northern Peloponnese surrounding Argos. I slept for most of the trip out of Athens, but I woke up right as we were driving over the Corinth Canal, which is actually quite an impressive sight to see. The canal, interestingly enough begun personally by Roman Emperor Nero shortly before his death, is 6 kilometers long and cuts through the narrow Isthmus connecting Mainland Greece with the Peloponnese, essentially rendering the latter an island. The sheer cliffs that compose the side walls of the canal are simply amazing. I saw in Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days how they get ships through the canal: three men board each ship, a pilot and two men who watch over the sides, and through communications between the three men they are able to guide ships unscathed through the canal. It was actually pretty cool. After our snack break at the canal, we boarded the bus and continued on to nearby Isthmia, a site that had been excavated by Oscar Broneer of the University of Chicago. Because of our connections, we received an exclusive tour run by the site architect (the member of the excavation team who essentially pieces everything together and draws out plans and elevations among other things). We were allowed into the new museum, not yet open to the public, where we were treated to artifacts associated with the cult of Poseidon (including remains of the cult statue of Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite, still in bubble wrap), the Isthmian games (including an iron discus and part of a chariot wheel), and the sunken harbor of Cenchreai (including decorative glass panels). Outside the museum we walked around the site, even going beyond the ropes into the foundations of the Temple of Poseidon (which was awesome). Our guide showed us a reconstruction of the ancient wall surrounding the sanctuary as well as the old altar and running track, where he explained how footraces worked in ancient Greece, with the starting line where the runners were tethered until the race started (and how the starting line had to be rebuilt because it was so easy to cheat using the old one by simply stepping on your opponent's string). Next to the starting line was the Roman shrine to Palaimon. Palaimon was the son of a Boeotian prince and Ino, the rearer of Dionysus. When his father was driven mad by Hera, he cast ino and Palaimon into the sea. Palaimon's body was taken by a dolphin and deposited beneath a pine tree on the Isthmus of Corinth, where he was discovered by his uncle Sisyphus and brought to Corinth. At the command of the Nereids, Sisyphus established the Isthmian Games in Palaimon's honor. The shrine to Palaimon, the third or fourth of its kind, was supposed to have been constructed above Palaimon's grave (it's actually above a sewer pipe). Here sacrifices were made to Palaimon for good fortune during the games. As we were running out of time, our guide led us to a cavern/dining room and allowed us a distant glimpse of the Roman Baths before we were herded back to the bus for our next destination: Nemea. Nemea is well known for its role in one of the twelve labors of Heracles, the slaying of the Nemean Lion (a fact acknowledged accidentally by Sarah when she insisted she was Heracles and her fleece jacket the skin of the Lion). Our first stop at Nemea was the Archaeological Museum, housing the finds from the excavations conducted by UC-Berkeley. There we were treated to very nice models reproducing the Sanctuary of Zeus as well as the nearby stadium, site of the Nemean Games. After a gander at the miniatures (and Helma mistaking graves for sheep) we set off for the real thing. We walked along the path past fields of grapevines first arriving at the Roman Baths, which had a recognizable frigidarium and caldarium. After basking in the fallen glory of Roman luxury, as well as strange fascination with an octagonal trash can, we moved on to a strange circle of pavement which we really couldn't figure out the purpose for, but decided it was certainly something having to do with religion, and moved on, passing by the ruins of a Roman monastery. We then arrived at the Temple of Zeus, which was clad for the most part in scaffolding. The reason for this was that Berkeley was re-erecting several of the fallen columns, which is at one level good, because they're recreating the experience for future generations, but on another level it removes the romanticism of the site, with its former silhouette of three columns against a sunset with other columns fallen upon the ground looking remarkably like round dominoes. Beyond the temple, we saw the Great Altar of Zeus, where competitors in the Games would sacrifice and proceed to the Stadium on foot, but we decided to take the bus, because we had a few buildings and fences in our way. When we got to the Stadium site, we first passed through the apodytrion, or changing room, then through a tunnel into the stadium itself, which is practically perfectly preserved. Our group gathered at one end, but I clambered to the top of the hill the stadium was built into to get a better view and to see the footrace about to ensue. After that, we reboarded the bus and headed to Mycenae, the location of the citadel of Agamemnon (and his tomb, according to Schleimann). After a brisk trip through the museum, we entered through the Lion Gate, something I've been waiting to see for a long time, and proceeded past the "grave circle of Agamemnon" where Schleimann gazed into the face of Agamemnon to the Megaron and the cistern, which was at least 50 if not 100 steps below ground, cut into solid stone. It was amazing. After those escapades, we went to the tholos tombs nearby, named arbitrarily by Schleimann the tombs of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra and the Treasury of Atreus, which were pretty impressive (especially once we realized the Treasury of Atreus was a whisper dome). After the tholoi we boarded the bus headed for Nafplio, where we stayed in a hotel for the next two nights. That night we went on a hunt for an amazing gelateria which eluded us but was eventually found by accident. Afterwards, we had a very nice dinner as a group at this nice tavern which seated all 26 of us outside in the alley, but it was so cool and the food was delicious. We of course had a repeat run at the gelateria, this time knowing precisely where it was, and later I fell asleep satisfied and awaiting my next day with more ruin-hopping. Well, reader, in the interest of preserving your interest, I'm going to start the next day in a new post. So, until next time…

National Museum, Epigraphical Museum (APRIL 4-6, 2009)

Hello again! This weekend was relatively uneventful, as I was simply exhausted from my first full week in Athens. On Saturday, I slept in and just relaxed all day, going out for lunch and dinner and the occasional trips up to the Athens Centre to sit on the steps and leech off of the wireless connection so I could talk to Katt. On Sunday, seeing as it was a free day at all museums and sites, I went with Paul, Helma, Eric, Stacy, and Prya to the Epigraphical Museum, where they had over 13000 inscriptions found across Greece. Some of the highlights were the oldest inscription found in Athens from the 8^th century BC, the order by Themistokles to retreat to the Acropolis during the Persian Wars, the decree found on the cover of Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek (which was my favorite), large stelae inscribed with the Athenian tribute lists, a catlog of deceased soldiers from ca. 411 BC (likely form the Sicilian Expedition), and ostraka (potsherds inscribed with the names of men nominated for ostracism, or forced exile) inscribed with the names of Themistokles, Pericles, and Thucydides (the politician, not the historian). After the Epigraphical Museum, Helma bought us lunch at a café and we then went into the National Archaeological Museum, my first of MANY visits in the coming months, to get a taste of it all. We saw the geometric funerary krater with the woman on the bier and hair-pulling mourners, the golden "Mask of Agamemnon" complete with the fake 19^th-century Bavarian mustache added by Schliemann, as well as the Vase Collection upstairs and the frescoes and finds from Akrotiri, the Minoan site on Thera/Santorini. After that we made a quick stop for caffeine in the museum café, browsed the museum shop, and since it was rainy and could get worse, and Eric was worried about his bank card (he went to the bank and then realized it was Sunday), we headed back, where I sat and relaxed in my windowsill listening to The World According to Clarkson, and just relaxed, having pita and feta for dinner. After sleeping in and being woken up by the schoolkids across the street, I went to get food, talk to Katt, and finally catch up on my blog. So, that being accomplished, until next time…

Acropolis (APRIL 2-3, 2009)

Hello again! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy/lazy. I'm combining days 8 and 9 because I had the morning off on Thursday, and all I did was get my laundry done and go to classes. On Friday, however, I was treated to the gigantic elephant in the room that is Athens: the ACROPOLIS. I went to sleep early so I would not be drowsy when we met up at 8:30 am to make the expectant journey to the Rock. We walked through the National Gardens toward the familiar strand leading past the Areopagus and the new Acropolis Museum and made our way up the hill, accompanied by the necessary dogs and constantly bugged by vendors trying to sell us water and other sundries, and congregated at the top to wait for our free tickets into the Acropolis. After an overview of the site, we entered through the crowded entrance gate and continued further up the hill to the ancient entrance to the Acropolis, the Propylaea. The Propylaea was a quasi-symmetrical portico/building supported by Doric columns along the front and Ionic columns along the entrance gate (the reason for this is that Doric columns had to have a certain proportion between height and width, while Ionic columns are able to reach higher with narrower shafts). To the right of the Propylaea is the Temple of Athena Nike, currently under restoration, as well as a hole cut in the fortification wall, showing the Mycenaean period foundations on the Acropolis, a testament to the stability of the site's occupation. To the left is the monument to Agrippa, the builder extraordinaire of Augustan Rome. We walked up the switchback steps (in ancient times it would have been a ramp, presumably to accommodate the Panathenaic procession) through the Propylaea into a wide expanse of ruins, cluttered with fallen marble and the modern machines and scaffolding erected to commemorate the modern Greek insistence on reinstituting their past to emphasize the perseverance of Democracy in a country which had been crushed under the oppression of so many. The cranes lifted old and new marble blocks, shaped by workers on site, into place to try and build up again monuments destroyed by centuries of conflict and siege. To the left where a woman was preparing a large block of marble there once stood the great bronze Athena Promachos (possibly made in the "foundry" at the base of the hill), a statue depicting Athena as the defender of the city, fully clad in armor and bearing a spear, once taken to Constantinople and destroyed during the Fourth Crusade, and only known to us today through smaller copies. Beyond that was the Erechtheion, a "split-level" temple erected in the late 5^th century BC and once used as the harem for the Ottoman ruler of Athens. The temple is bedecked with a frieze-band of blue limestone, a "sky-light" marking the spot where Poseidon supposedly struck the Acropolis, creating a salt-water spring, and a majestic olive tree which is the "descendent" of that which was given by Athena in her battle with Poseidon for patronship of Athens (like we would be as fascinated with a city called Poseidos). The most recognizable feature of the temple, and possibly my favorite feature on the Acropolis, is the Porch of the Caryatids, or "Porch of the Maidens," a seemingly random porch on the North side of the temple with a roof supported by 6 caryatids, or female-shaped columns, which was built to simply mask a support beam, but comes to us as a monument to beauty even for mediocre purposes (even though the original caryatids have been worn horribly by the modernization and pollution of the Attic basin and were replaced by copies). The maidens overlook what is today an open field toward possibly the most recognizable (though often misnamed) building in the world: The Parthenon. The Parthenon was erected between 447 and 432 BC as a "victory monument" and treasury for the Athenians and the Delian League (the Athenian quasi-empire). The Parthenon housed the statue of Athena Parthenos ("Athena the Maiden"), a massive chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculpture by Phidias whose golden armor and crown could be removed to be melted down as a source of emergency money (also, Phidias supposedly made them removable to prove that he didn't steal any gold by weighing them). The Parthenon, while from the exterior a typical Doric order temple, is special in that there was no cult associated with it, so there is no recognizable altar, and the inner chamber has been altered into a massive opisthodomus ("back-porch/back-room") for the storage of the treasures and offerings of the Delian League. While the Pathenon is wonderful, it is mostly decrepit as a result of the destructive nature of the conquerors of Athens and the cursed venetians who in 1687 bombarded the Parthenon, then the munitions cache of the Ottomans, blowing a massive hole in the side of the temple, still seen today and which will likely remain despite the restoration activities elsewhere on the Parthenon. Another glaring absence on the Parthenon and Greece as a whole are the Parthenon marbles, taken by Lord Elgin under Ottoman auspices in 1801-2, and now housed in the British Museum. While the argument for preservation of the marbles by bringing them to England is sound in hindsight (see: caryatids from Erechteion), the new Acropolis Museum was erected to replace the inadequate shack of a museum on the Acropolis in order to bring them back to their homeland, and of course they plan to emphasize this by noting in their Parthenon exhibit all the marbles missing and where they are currently located. Veering away from ranting, another fascinating fact about the Parthenon is that the building has absolutely no straight lines, with the foundation curved to follow the curvature of the earth, and the columns leaning inward at an angle which, if traced, the lines of all the columns would converge 5 miles above the Parthenon (neat huh?). Anyhow, after taking in the rest of the ruins on the Acropolis, including the column bases of the Temple of Augustus and Roma and the Frankish tower where during WWII Greek patriots scaled the Acropolis cliffs to raise the Greek flag in place of the Swastika, we headed out the Propylaea, which was now filled to the brim with tourists, and went down to the Peripatos, once the haunt of Aristotle who waxed philosophic in the cool shadow of the Rock. Along the Peripatos, we passed the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, still used today for concerts and shows, and the truly massive Theatre of Dionysus, taking up the north slope of the Acropolis. Luckily we had Paul with us, who had done reports on the caves and sanctuaries along the Peripatos for the ASCS, so he showed us all the cool things along the path, including the massive stone that denoted the pathway as the Peripatos, and the Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros, where the niches are even today used for offerings (usually of rocks or the occasional candle or pomegranate). After the long walk around the Acropolis and the long morning in general, I headed back to relax. I talked to Katt, did some work, went to class for my "quiz," and just relaxed from a long week and got ready for a long, lazy weekend. So, reader, until next time…

Euboea (APRIL 1, 2009)

Hello again! My day started off early (7 am) when I rolled out of bed and out the door to catch the bus down the street for our excursion to Euboea, a long island skirting the eastern coast of mainland Greece. Our first stop after a nice nap on the bus was to the Amphiareion, or the Sanctuary of Amphiaraos, located near Oropos. The sanctuary was dedicated in the late 5th century BC to the hero Amphiaraos, one of the members of the expedition against Thebes who knew it would fail, and upon retreat from a battle with a son of Poseidon, he angered Zeus, prompting him to hurl a thunderbolt and break open the earth, swallowing the chariot of Amphiaraos. The sanctuary was founded around the spot where supposedly Amphiaraos' spirit breaks free from the earth in the form of a sacred spring, and later on became a famous oracle (one of the two reliable oracles, with Delphi, according to Herodotus' Croesus). At the site, we visited the 4th century BC Doric-order Temple of Amphiaraos, whose pediment was on display in the courtyard of the museum, with remnants of paint still extant. In front of the temple is a great altar with inscriptions to a number of gods and heroes and surrounded by a poor-quality theatre set-up of carved benches. Across from the altar is the stoa, with several extant staute bases, where in ancient times pilgrims would, after making a sacrifice of a ram, sleep overnight in the ram's hide in order to "incubate" and cure their troubles (the rooms where they incubated are visible in wall foundations). Behind the stoa stands a Greek-style theatre, which is one of the most well preserved in Greece, as the proscaenum has been reconstructed in its original form, and the dedicatory seats for priests and magistrates still stand. Across the ravine/river/torrent lay the foundations of several large houses as well as a very unique object: a klepsedra, or a water clock, essentially a cistern filled with water that is released at a regular flow which is used to tell time via the present level of the water. This water clock was especially unique because the bronze valve was still intact in the bottom of the cistern. After admiring the water clock, we got back on the bus and headed to Oropos, where we boarded the ARES II ferry to Eritria. When we arrived in Eritria, we headed straight for the Archaeological Museum, where they had the finds from the various sites in the area, including the theatre, Sanctuary of Apollo, the house of the mosaics, the old town, and the "Heroon" at Lefkandi, a 10th century apsidal (curved at one end) hall where the Swiss Archaeological School found a "chieftain" cremation burial alongside the inhumation of a woman and that of two horses. After wondering at the finds, including a centaur from Lefkandi that was decapitated and buried in two places and the pediment sculpture of the Archaic Temple of Apollo, we walked to the House of the Mosaics, where we were let in by a special key to view the well-preserved mosaics once decorating a floor with a highly mythological program. We then ventured to the old theatre, which was massive and partialy hidden by the top of the Scaenum (stage building) at ground level. We walked on to the old town, which was a meter tall labyrinth of walls, but provided ample opportunity for scampering and climbing among the ruins, even including a nearly 3000 year old tunnel to walk through at the West gate, once part of the great defensive wall. We found the Temple of Hephaestus, now a simple foundation with a hole in the middle, as well as the Heroon, which we had been standing on the whole time and didn't realize until we found a sign with a map telling us where we were. After copious amount of ruin walking and I'm pretty sure an epic game of "Don't step in the lava", we left to eat lunch on the harborfront, where some kids from the school behond us kept hitting on all the girls, telling them to call them later. It was great! We then went to the final stop on our journey, Lefkandi, which was really just scant remnants of walls and a few holes in the ground, some systematic, some from looters. I was able to orient Helma and help her realize where the Hero-graves were, and that the "trapdoors" led down to them by way of a metal door. I took a few pictures of what remained, and then we had to go back to the bus to make our way home. (NB: We had to be let in to all the places in Eritria with a special key. Kinda makes me feel special.) After a ferry ride and a 2 hour bus ride home, most of which I slept through, we made it back to Athens, where I talked to Katt, had some totally awesome Pita Quesadillas, and subsequently passed out. So, reader, until next time...

Olympieion, Areopagus, Pnyx, Agora (MARCH 31, 2009)

Hello again! Sorry about the late post...I passed out from sheer exhaustion from the past two days, which is really a good thing, because it means that I'm enjoying it. If I weren't, I wouldn't be tired, I'd be crabby. Anyhow, the day started off with a rendezvous at the Athens Centre, from where we walked through the National Gardens to the Olympieion, or the Temple of Olympian Zeus, once the largest temple on mainland Greece, now relegated to the ranks of ruins, with columns both standing and toppled, and taken over by the nature from which it ultimately came. We entered through the old gateway to the sanctuary (the grounds surrounding the temple), first admiring the unique history of the temple, which started off as a small Archaic temple, was overtaken by the beginnings of a massive temple by the Pisistratids (the column drum segments left over from the Pisistratid temple were enormous, at least 5 feet in diameter if not more), was later revived by Atiochus IV, and finally completed in the 2nd century AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, whose temple remains are those that exist today (identified by the typically Roman Corinthian capitals), and the stone from the other stages was likely used to build the many defensive walls erected in Athens in the period before Hadrian completed it. We walked around the temple to get a sense of the sheer size, but also to see the valley of the river Ilissos, where there was ongoing excavation. After we had made the trek around the temple, we came upon the Arch of Hadrian, erected by the Emperor to mark the boundary between the Athens of Theseus, the legendary founder of Athens (AKA the old city), and the Athens of Hadrian, the legendary renovator of Athens. Hadrian was so important to Athens that a tribe/deme of Athens was named after him, the Hadrianis, putting him among the ranks of the eponymous heroes. After the Arch of Hadrian, where we were nearly blind-sided by a bendy-bus, we headed towards the Acropolis, but not to it, as Helma felt it good to tease us with the high city. We passed a random ruin in the middle of a square, and found the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, erected around 335 BC by himself in honor of his benefaction as a choregos of a winning play in the Theatre of Dionysus. It is a drum-like structure on a podium adorned by engaged columns of the Corinthian order, one of the first pieces of monumental architecture to use acanthus-leaf capitals. The monument was once home to poet Lord Byron in his frequent visits to Athens in the early 19th century, and there is a plaque commemorating his tenancy. From there we made our way further uphill to the base of the Acropolis, passing by the new Acropolis Museum, not open until June 20th but built specifically to house the finds from the Acropolis, including the so-called "Elgin marbles" in the British Museum taken by Lord Elgin in 1801-2. Along the way we had attracted a host of dogs, who quickly dispersed when we arrived at the tourist trap at the base of the hill. Passing by, we ventured first to the Areopagus, or "the hill of Ares," where the Athenian homicide court established in the tragic cycle of the Oresteia was located. The view from the top of the hill, reached by the more adventurous via the "original" slippery, worn stone stairs or by the more cautious/tired via modern metal stairs, was very impressive, overlooking the Ancient Agora and the Pnyx, as well as providing a view of the Propylaea on the Acropolis, as well as a strange red balloon floating over the Acropolis... Nevermind the balloon. From the Areopagus we hiked down and back up to the Pnyx, a site that until I saw it I honestly could not understand. Apparently, the Pnyx was the meeting place for the citizen assembly, where men could speak their mind from the bema (the Greek "soapbox") to the crowd collected in the semi-circular standing area. Unless you see how it is laid out, it is confusing, because during its lifetime the Pnyx was reversed to face the countryside (now the city) instead of the Acropolis and the sea, suggesting an emphasis on the importance of land-based sustenance and the shifting of political modes between democracy and oligarchy. Thus, instead of following the natural slope of the hill, a retaining wall was built to make a faux-horizontal area/terrace for the audience. Enough of this confusion. After enjoying the relatively unimpressive Pnyx, we walked down to the Ancient Agora, a site I will return to later in further detail, but for now will highlight. We entered near the Hephaesteion (or Theseion), a beautiful Doric order temple overlooking the agora with a frieze depicting the labors of Theseus, likely meant to imply connections between the temple's brain-child, Pericles, as well as revel in the toils of the Persian Wars, especially since the frieze also depicts the battle between the Lapiths (civilized men) and the Centaurs (barbarians). Making sure to cover all the bases, the metopes depict the labors of Heracles alongside those of Theseus. From the Hephaesteion we walked into the agora, wandering past the House of Simon, the Tholos (of Socratic fame), the monument of the Eponymous Heroes from whom the tribes of Athens derived their names, and a headless statue of Hadrian with Athena perched atop the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, a symbol establishing Rome as the stable foundation of Athens in the 2nd century AD. We the visited the Agora Museum, which is housed in the restored Stoa of Attalos, a roofed colonnade meant as a retreat from the blistering Greek sun in ancient times and today. After a quick gander at the pottery and other finds from the agora, I headed back to the apartment, grabbed some lunch, relaxed, talked to Katt, went to classes, and essentially passed out, thus why this post is a day late, and the post covering today will come tomorrow. So, reader, until next time...