Sparta is, unfortunately, not near the ocean. So Abi and I had to find somewhere to set as a destination for the run. Fortunately, Panayiotis recommended a donut shop, Mr. Donut that was a reasonable distance away. So off we went, in search of a good workout and tasty pastries. We did indeed find the donuts and some dog friends! One had a collar labeled “Cleon” and the other was uncollared. They didn't eat the bits of donut we offered but did gamely follow us most of the way back to the hotel. After distributing donuts at breakfast we hit the road.
The donuts in their glory. Some of the best donuts I've ever eaten.
We didn't hit the road for long though, because we were only going to the Artemis Orthia sanctuary. Alas, the gates were locked and Amy swiftly shut down my idea to boost each other over the fence. Still, Claudia presented on the sanctuary and the rites carried out therein. The rites involved some sort of beating of Spartan boys so that their blood would spatter on the altar. The practice is described differently by Xenophon and Pausanias, but the continuity of the rites is attested. Also, the moniker Artemis Orthia is rather late. Orthia was her own deity until the first century CE with her own attributes and offerings. That such a deity survived so long without being folded into another God or goddess is worth noting.
The sanctuary through the fence. The remains of the altar are in the center-left.
Another short jaunt took us to the Spartan Acropolis. Andrea presented there, primarily focusing on the Athena temple and the Theater. Supposedly, the temple was a relatively unadorned building in comparison to the other temples of the time. Excepting, of course, the inner room, which supposedly was completely plated in bronze. It was supposedly incredibly radiant to behold. The theater was also pretty cool. We saw the inscription listing the Spartan administrators under the Romans and the sliding tracks that apparently supported a movable stage. I got to do a bit more pathfinding and clambering on and over rocks, which I adore.
We left the Acropolis and took another short hop in the bus to the Sparta Museum. Unfortunately, one of the center pieces of the museum, the famous smiling Spartan in the severe style, is currently on tour in the U.S. Consequently, we were unable to get a detailed look at it, but the rest of the museum had some nice pieces. Amy cut us loose again to find what we liked the best. I chose a black marble boar with an incredibly intricate portrayal of fur. The black marble I had not seen in many sculptures thus far and the way the statue incorporated a supporting strut piqued my interest for the mini presentation.
We left the museum with a long break to get lunch. I ate gyros on the plaza with Luke, Sally, Melanie, and Asia. I don't think I've had a bad gyro yet in Greece. It's great to observe the little differences between regions in the gyro too. Gelato followed lunch before we headed for pick up.
After lunch we hopped on the bus and headed to Mystra, or Mistra depending on whose spelling you use, to meet Dr. Glen Bugh, chief of the admissions committee for the summer sessions and all around important dude at the ASCSA. The site really wasn't important until the Frankish rulers, following the 4th Crusade, built a castle at the top of the mountain. They even used local stones to do so, saving them from having to pull the rocks up the hill. We weren't going that way though, so even though we started at the upper entrance to the site, we decided to head down from the castle rather than up to the top.
Glen lecturing on Mystra.
I guess that decision was fortunate, however, as some British tourists happened upon the group and told us that there was a fire at the castle. While that certainly dissuaded us from going up further, the site guards also prevented us from going down until they had received an all clear from up top. At long last, just as we were about to head back to the bus to start from the lower entrance, we were permitted to continue down the hill. We looked at a bunch of gorgeous views of the plain as well as an active abbey and the palace of the Byzantine rulers of the area after the Frankish were defeated. On the walks between the sites, Glen very graciously entertained a ton of my questions about the Franks and Byzantines. Thanks Glen! I know a lot more than I did before the hike. Also, running across the paths at Mystra is great fun, would recommend highly.
We dropped Glen off at the bus depot in Sparta and then headed for Kalamata. We were pretty behind schedule to the tune of two hours, so we only stayed for about 30 minutes. The museum was arranged geographically by region, which was bizarre, to be honest. The labels were also insanely wordy, which for us is fine, but for people attempting to have a casual museum visit it'd be far too much. The unfortunate thing is that the museum is very obviously newly remodeled and so I don't think these clarity problems are getting fixed any time in the near future. I did see some cool weights and measures standards (sekomata) though.
Sekoma with incremented sizes.
Then we hit the road one last time, headed for Pylos. Another long day today, another five sites. Tomorrow we get to go on a boat! And we're in Pylos, which has a beach! HYPE!
Thanks for reading.
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