7/22 - Thebes, Osios Loukas, Corycian Cave

No pictures for another long while. Sadness. But, in better news, Abi is now reading the posts before they go up so your experience will be less typo-tastic. Thanks Abi!

Clinton joined Abi and me on our hike up Lykabettos this morning! It was again lovely. Dawn touched the sky with her fingertips of rose and we sat in silence for some time. The serenity was palpable. That's a topic I'd like to expand on further once the program concludes. The Summer Session, or at least the way that I have chosen to experience it, has allowed for a lot of these moments and that's proven really useful for introspection.

I bought some cherries and peaches for the bus at the Kolonaki farmer’s market and then ate a quick breakfast. The bus got rolling at 0800 on the dot and away we went. The ride to Thebes was a long-ish one and I used the time to knock out a bunch of postcards. After a rest stop just outside the town that was eerily similar to many that I've been to on the Ohio Turnpike, we piled out of the bus at Ismenion Hill. After a brief walk upwards, we met Dr. Kevin Daly of Bucknell University (Ray Bucknell! Ray Bucknell! Ray for the Orange and the Blue!), who has excavated in Thebes for the past five years. He was our guide for a whirlwind walking tour of the city that took us from southeast to north-northwest, hitting many excavations along the way.

Dr. Kevin Daly on the hill below this season's excavation.

We started at the Temple of Apollo Ismenion, which doesn't have much remaining material. The big questions about the temple revolve around the phases of building. Because it was seen by Pausanias in the second century CE, the temple had to stand. But Alexander the Great literally leveled Thebes when it revolted following the death of his father. So the question of two or three phases of building on the site is still very open.

Picture of the temple foundations.

We walked up past the fortified walls and through a gate that's now covered by a road. We stopped in the shade of a church and discussed the somewhat tense relationship between the archaeological community and the town. One cause of this tension is that the local museum, which just reopened this summer, had been under renovation and remodeling for eight years. The tardiness of the project was a source of frustration because the museum is supposed to help bring tourists to the city and it was certainly not doing that for nearly a decade. There was also a project that fell through in the 1990s for an American private sponsor to invest multiple millions of dollars into  the excavation and study of central Thebes, but various considerations made the project untenable. Of course, now, that money is sorely missed. Also, doing random construction projects around the city can lead to lengthy road closures if the workers discover ancient material, making development in the city proper is quite difficult.

The relationship between archaeology and the places where modern people overlap with ancient material is always challenging. Kevin represented the interests and frustrations of both sides of the coin well in his talk. It's certainly the most extensive lecture we've had on the subject, which makes sense given how Thebes is both archaeologically rich and also heavily developed.

One really interesting thing about Thebes were the rich Mycenaean remains. There is a lot of Linear B around at least two structures in the city, which challenges our assumptions, based heavily on the idea of castles having a single scriptorium, that writing was only present in palaces proper. The discovery of Linear B in the building called the Arsenal raised questions about the above and whether or not palaces were always one building.

Foundations of the earlier palace

One more bizarre and interesting thing about the Mycenaean palaces at Thebes has to do with elevation. There is an earlier palace at Thebes. Its scant remains currently sit exposed at ground level. The later palace, but not that much later, is in trenches six meters down. That's a puzzling question that as of right now has no answer.

The second palace. Why it's so much lower than the earlier one is still an open question. 

We ended at the museum, which is brand spanking new. The highlight of the museum for me was the display of frescoes from the Mycenaean excavations. They're huge, colorful, beautifully restored, and a colorful look back on a culture that's too often just seen in earthy stones. These people loved color and decoration and it's a shame that not much of that survives.

One of the wall-painting reconstructions. Nothing but respect to the people who can piece

the fragments back together. 

We ate lunch at a gyro place up the road, which added a subtle mustard to their pork gyros. I'm not normally a mustard guy, but these gyros are certainly in the running for best so far on the trip.

Then we got back on the bus and drove back to our starting point for a special meeting. Summer Session I was also in Thebes today, so we got to meet our counterparts from the other session! Emmanuel, who shares the room I stay in at  Loring Hall when I'm not there, was super cool and friendly! We've written notes back and forth to each other before leaving on trips and it was really nice to actually meet the person behind those notes. I also said high to Claudio, who I know from the University of Chicago. He's a graduate student there. After some big group photos, we quickly separated as both groups were still on a tight schedule. Kudos to Amy and Denver, the Summer Session I Director, for arranging the meeting.

Up next after a bit of a drive was Osios Loukas, a monastery high in the mountains. Tim presented on the history of the monastery. Basically, Loukas was a monk who started young and proceeded to attempt to live the monk life. I say attempted because he kept getting displaced roughly every ten years. Pirates, mercenaries, and hostile armies bounced him around from place to place. He gained a reputation for being a healer and for giving prophecies. Eventually he settled at the site of the monastery, which has been damaged and rebuilt multiple times.

Exterior of Osios Loukas

The mosaics were awesome, as were the frescoes. The gold background, the fantastic iconography, and the somber silence of the churches combined to produce an awesome atmosphere, in the original sense of awesome.

Stunning mosaics from inside one of the two churches on site. 

Our final stop was AWESOME. We went to the Corycian Cave. It's a half an hour hike up the hill, which was strenuous enough to burn the calves but not enough to be impossible. The payoff though, was even better. The cave is deep. It goes beyond the entry chamber up a ridge in the back, down into another chamber, and into a tiny pocket in the back. So good! We may not have heard Amy shouting for us (sorry Amy), but Clinton, Sophie, Luke, and I had a blast. Just a fantastic experience all around. Luke and I ran down the hill too. That was amazing. Definitely going to write something longer after the program about the strenuous activity available as well.

Picture of the cavernous first chamber of the cave. 

Picture of Clinton and Sophie below Luke and me in the final chamber of the cave.

We drove to the hotel last, passing Delphi on the way. We're running there tomorrow!!

Thanks for reading.