Spending Time in Ancient History

I mentioned this briefly in my blog about our 7-day sailing trip around the Ionian Sea, but traveling to Greece opened a long-forgotten memory bank for me, going back nearly 25 years ago, when I studied Latin for two years in school.  My teacher taught Edith Hamilton's classic book called Mythology.  There was a time when I was very well versed in the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans.  In the years since, I haven't really needed the knowledge except it has been useful a couple times to know the legends of Atlas (holds the Earth and celestial heavens on his shoulders), Sisyphus (cursed to roll a rock up hill for eternity), and of course Pandora (the first woman in Greek mythology who let evil enter the world by opening a vessel, often referred to as a box).  
  
Bookending our Greek sailing trip was a night in Ancient Corinth on the front end and a night in Athens on the back end.  We got to walk around the ruins of temples to these mythic gods and a city named after one of them too.

With our time in Ancient Corinth, we walked the small main street, stopped in a few souvenir shops, and visited the Museum of Ancient Corinth.  In Athens, we walked the pedestrian city center, visited some antique shops, and capped it off with a visit to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum.

Ancient Corinth

Through large-scale archeological excavations, large portions of Ancient Corinth have been uncovered.  It's possible to walk around the excavation site and there is a nice museum on the grounds that houses a collection of ancient marble statues, pottery, and other recovered remains from the city.  Ancient Corinth is 'the' Corinth of 1st and 2nd Corinthians so that was a great connection too.

Excavations have also been done on the Acrocorinth, which is a fortress on the hill overlooking the city.  It served as a last line of defense during many conflicts.  We didn't have time to go up to the fortress but you can see it fairly well from the museum.

The most pronounced aspect of the site is the partly reconstructed ruins of the Temple of Apollo.  The Ancient Corinth Museum is definitely worth of visit if you are in the area.  

Temple of Apollo - look at the hill in the background and you can see part of the Acrocorinth outline

A closer look

Part of the excavated city

An artistic depiction to help visitors visualize what Ancient Corinth looked like.

The baths

In Greek mythology, the winged-horse Pegasus is linked to Ancient Corinth.  Thus the horse on the museum's entry banner.   

In one of the museum's wings there are some wonderful mosaics recovered from the excavated floor of a Roman-era villa - circa 2nd/3rd Century AD.  This one was one of my favorites, which featured Dionysus, the god of wine, in the center. 

The detail of his face

A statue of a Phrygian captive

A suit of armor in marble

Recovered from Corinth's theater - this scene depicts the battle of Greeks and Amazons

Athens

At the end of our sailing trip, we got on the road and drove about 3 hours south -- destination Athens.  It was a weekend.  So thankfully the traffic was not bad and the interstate system in Greece, at least the portion we were on, was very good.  Lots of tolls though so come prepared.

After we got checked into our hotel and took our first real showers after 7 days on the boat, we headed out to explore the city.  I kept noticing owls all over the place and asked someone about it.  I had forgotten the connection between the goddess Athena, for whom Athens is named, and the symbol of the owl.  Athena was the goddess of wisdom and seen as the protector of knowledge and civilization.  So seeing an owl was associated with her presence and probably consider a good omen.  Her temple in Athens was the Parthenon, which is probably the most recognized structure of the Acropolis.   

An owl statue in the Acropolis Museum

View of the Parthenon over Tom's shoulder

Below is a photo showing the other side of the hill where the main entrance would have been through the Propylaea.  Note the Temple of Nike, the small temple to the right of the photo, and the Monument of Agrippa is the stand-alone pedestal you see to the left.  

The Propylaea

A closer view showing the stairs leading up to the entryway

A recommendation for visiting the Acropolis, particularly during high tourist season, try to be there as soon as the site opens.  This way you are not on the hill under the hot sun and you beat the large tour groups that typically descend around 10 a.m.  It's still busy, but not as crowded as it'll be later in the morning.  I also read that being there towards closing is a nice time to visit as well. 

Temple of Athena Nike - the lighter stones are part of an extensive restoration project

The Parthenon is undergoing its own renovation.  There is scaffolding and cranes all around.  If you were once able to walk through the structure, it is current closed.  It's still pretty impressive just walking around the outside of the structure.  The Parthenon is considered the greatest temple site of ancient times.  The temple is 228 feet long and 101 feet wide.  You'll notice the same white stones here as in the picture above of the Temple of Athena Nike.  New stones have been meticulously cut to replace missing ones.  The white stone will eventually weather and blend into the older, original stones.

A cool thing I learned in my guide book is that a series of optical illusions contribute to what appears to be a straight-line construction.  There are bends and curves in the columns to keep it from appearing to sag and some columns are bigger and placed more closely to give it an appearance of symmetry.   

Below is a great photo showing the details of the temple.  The fluting on the columns, the frieze, metopes (panels of relief carvings), triglyphs, crossbeam (supported the pediment) and pediment (the triangular roof line that is largely gone now).  In the Acropolis Museum there is a full reconstruction of what the frieze would have looked like. 

Guidebook in hand helping us orient ourselves to the site

One of the few metopes still on site - part of what would have been a 525-foot frieze that wrapped around the entire building

Loved this view - made me think of Legos

And speaking of Legos there is actually a model of the Acropolis done entirely in Legos that is on display in the museum.

The Parthenon is great but my favorite aspect of the Acropolis is the Erechtheion and the Porch of the Caryatids.  Inside the building at one time was a life-size, olive wood statue of Athena.  The statue went missing during the Persian War and dated to around 900 BC. 

The Porch of the Caryatids features six lady-columns that support the roof.  The inspiration was supposedly the Karyatides, women from Karyai, who were known for their upright posture and noble character.  The columns here are faithful reproductions.  Five of the originals can be seen in the museum.  The sixth was removed in 1805 by Lord Elgin and is currently in the British Museum.  Greece hopes to get the sixth column back now that the columns have a dedicated room in the new, modern museum.   

Despite their beauty, these columns had a function and were designed to support massive weight

I really liked the detail of their hair

As you make your way up to the Propylaea, the first site on your right is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  It seats about 5,000 people and was used for musical performances during Roman times.  It had been destroyed but was reconstructed in the 1950s.  They still hold performances there and you'll note that it is set up for a concert.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The Theater of Dionysus sits at the foot of the Acropolis.  Greek plays, including ones by Sophocles, were produced here during Greek's Golden Age. 

Here is a view looking down at the Theater of Dionysus. 

The building in the upper-right hand corner of the photo is the Acropolis Museum.  It's definitely worth a visit.  We did the Acropolis first and then went to the museum.  A little hint on visiting the site and the museum, if you're going to do both.  I would suggest entering the Acropolis via its main entrance which is on the West Side near the Propylaea.  Stop and take a few photos of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and then make your way up to the Acropolis.  Once your done with your visit, back track and then take the south pathway towards the Theater of Dionysus.  You can take some pictures at the theater and then use the south exit, which will drop you out just a few blocks from the museum.

Now on the reverse, as you are hurrying to get in line for tickets, don't miss Mars Hill, which is near the ticket office and can easily be missed.  There is a stone staircase, with handrails, that leads to the top.  Not realizing what it was immediately, Tom went and checked it out, while I got in line.  I hadn't studied my map well and thought Mars Hill was up on the hill with the Acropolis.  This is the site where Paul gave his sermon on the "Unknown God," which is recorded in the Book of Acts.

View looking down at Mars Hill from the Propylaea

Another cool thing we came across in front of the Greek Parliament building, which was perpendicular to our hotel, was the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.  Similar to the Tomb that is in Washington DC at Arlington Cemetery, the memorial is guarded by evzone, an elite infantry unit of the Greek army. 

The Tomb of the Unknown Solider in front of Parliament

Evzone guards make their way to the memorial to assume the guard

So after getting back to our hotel, we got checked out and then went up to the rooftop bar and enjoyed some drinks and enjoyed the view -- that's the Acropolis in the background.  

And one more thing.  Our trip got me interested in revisiting Edith Hamilton's book Mythology so I was able to get it from the library.  I'm slowly refreshing myself on a topic I used to know well and now has a whole new perspective having seen some of these sites with my own eyes. 

Cheers to a great trip!