Welcome to anyone just starting the blog. Due to technical problems, I won't be able to upload photos until I get back to Athens in 7 or 8 days. In the meantime, enjoy the narration.
I woke up early early at 0600 and met Abi in the hotel lobby for a run down around the harbor and bastion opposite the Palamidi fortress. We went far enough and eventually came to a beach, where we briefly swam. The water was super warm and the beach was peaceful. Definitely doing that run again.
The famous Lion Gate at Mycenae. We were there early enough that no one else was taking pictures.
After a quick shower (almost flooded the bathroom, whoops) and breakfast we were on the bus, heading for well built Mycenae. We were met by Dr. Lynne Kvapil, who is conducting excavations on a Mycenaean house nearby. Up we went to the Lion Gate, where we gleefully took pictures with no one else around. Then we got to go under the rope, onto the megaron, much to the envy of the the groups of nearby tourists. We hung out for some time, discussing the wall expansions visible from the courtyard. Ducking back under the rope, we relocated to the expansion on the northeast side, near the cistern and opening out to the observation point. We talked a lot about the cistern, which is unfortunately inaccessible right now. The water was piped from a spring high on the nearby hill (drains and pipes are a particular interest for me). I want to personally thank Dr. Kvapil for entertaining all of my questions about the water system of the palace because there were a lot of them. And according to her, there hasn't been tremendous study of the drain/pipe system in the palace, so I may be back some day.
Next up was a brief stop at the Treasury of Atreus. The interior lintel block there is huge!! Dr. Kvapil told us that it weighs roughly 120 tons, or 15 African elephants. That's enormous!!! The inside was even bigger than I expected too. The dome is also massive! One awesome feature on the site that can't be seen from the inside is the layer of Plesia clay around the dome under the hill that protects it from water. The Mycenaeans sure knew how to build lasting structures.
The dromos, or entrance, to the Treasury of Atreus
With no pausing to dilly or to dally, we bid farewell to Mycenae and drove to the Argive Heraion, where Dr. Christopher Pfaff met us. He's perhaps THE architectural authority on the site, which has as many or more ambiguities than it does known information. The main cause of this dearth of reliable information goes back to the site’s excavation history. The American School did the primary excavations...from 1892-1896. The methodology of the time was nowhere near as meticulous as scholars are today, so material was thrown out and dumped by the ton, depriving many of the finds of context. Still, Dr. Pfaff conveyed what he knew about the site quite well. The name Argive Heraion might be a little misleading, apparently, which was the subject of a Jonathan Hall article in the 90s. He also talked about attempted reconstructions of the temple on the terrace and how scholars go back and forth that information. Overall, the information was presented well and we got some killer views over the plain
The majestic view from the Heraion.
We headed back to Nauplio, which incidentally is a mess to both spell and pronounce depending on what time period and type of Greek you're using, where we got off the bus for a 4 hour break. This meant that Panayiotis would be able to drive after the play later in the evening, which is necessary to come back here. A subset of the group went to the Museum of Folk Art, which houses cool artifacts from around and shortly after Greece became a state in the 1800s. Departing from there to gyros, we ate tasty chicken and pork before dispersing for gelato or the hotel.
The bus ride to Epidauros was much shorter than the predicted 45 minutes, which was good because the site closed an hour earlier than we were expecting. Luke gave a talk about the Tholos, which is a decidedly puzzling structure. It's also really really cool though. The circular structure took an estimated 40 to 50 years to construct and we know so little about its function. The six concentric circles are also a bizarre choice, especially the actual maze created in the three innermost rings. There are also those who claim that the central floor design looks like a heliocentric model of the solar system. I'm not really sure how one contorts the brain to see such a thing,but some people have managed. Luke did a really good job with such a weird building, so props for that.
We wandered about the site for a while before eventually being asked to leave by the monitors. It should be noted that we saw an adorable cat with her kitten while we were congregating near the museum. Anyways, we stepped out and headed to the bus to grab food and drink before the show.
The theater was nearly full for the performance.
Epidauros Theater is massive. The way the approach works, you don't really see the full scale until you come around on ground level and suddenly BAM this titanic construction is just there. We were in the upper bowl and sat ourselves down as a group to watch the Oresteia, perhaps the most famous surviving Greek tragedy next to Oedipus Rex. For non classics people, here's a really fast summary of what happens in the three individual plays that comprise the tragedy. Agamemnon returns home from the Trojan War victorious and is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and new lover, Aegisthus. In the second play, Orestes, son of Agamemnon, returns from exile and kills his mother. In the third, Orestes stands as the defendant in the first jury trial for his actions and is acquitted. The whole thing was in Ancient Greek, but there were also English subtitles projected in the theater for those of us whose Greek isn't there yet. The costumes were 20th century, and there was a radio that gave off static to signal oracular and divine events. I really enjoyed myself. The acoustics in the theater were awesome, allowing many lines to be spoken sans microphone. The star field was also rich and full, something I've come to appreciate when I can get it. After the plays, we conducted ourselves to the bus, surprisingly losing no one, and went back to Nauplio.
Thanks for reading.
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