Introduction to This Blog (Sticky)
This LJ is primarily a blog for me to let readers know when I add updates to my Greek travel website:
It includes my photos, diary entries, and musings on ancient Greek art and archaeology, sites and monuments, mythology, gods and goddesses, and history. I also include book and website recommendations.
Blog Catalog Blog Directory
It includes my photos, diary entries, and musings on ancient Greek art and archaeology, sites and monuments, mythology, gods and goddesses, and history. I also include book and website recommendations.
Blog Catalog Blog Directory
I've been looking forward to making this page. The Sanctuary at Epidaurus not only has a gorgeous and well-preserved Greek theater, it is a beautiful place, a fitting sanctuary for the kind and healing god Asklepios.
Alas, I spent so much time drinking in the atmosphere that I don't have as many photos as I'd like. Nonetheless, I think I've done the place justice:
(The Sanctuary of Epidaurus)
Alas, I spent so much time drinking in the atmosphere that I don't have as many photos as I'd like. Nonetheless, I think I've done the place justice:
(The Sanctuary of Epidaurus)
Yep, on a roll again. Here is my visit to the Palace of Tiryns, a bronze age citadel built around the time of the Trojan War. Includes photos, a little bit of archaeology, recommended links and more.
(The Palace of Tiryns)
(The Palace of Tiryns)
5th May 2005
After a long hiatus, I've started uploading my Greece Travel Diary again!
After a long hiatus, I've started uploading my Greece Travel Diary again!
The latest stop on the tour is the Palace of Mycenae, home of Agamemnon, the king who led the expedition of Greeks (or pre-Greeks) against the Trojans in the legendary Trojan war.
(Link to Diary and Photos of Mycenae)
6th May 2005The Mycenae Museum displays artifacts found in more recent excavations of the citadel and its surroundings: pottery, stone weights once used to anchor the warp-threads of a hanging loom, stylize clay figures of farmers ploughing behind oxen, female figurines (goddesses, worshippers or dolls?) and unusual terracotta snakes. Both snakes and figurines were found in a small cluster of religious buildings within the citadel of Mycenae.
What did these serpents mean?
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Mycenae Museum Photo Gallery
The Lion Gate of Mycenae
Then the goddess the ox-eyed lady Hera answered:
"Of all cities there are three that are dearest to my own heart:
Argos and Sparta and Mykenai of the wide ways."
Iliad 4.50-52, Lattimore translation
In Ancient Greece Odyssey Part II, I showed you the treasures Heinrich Schliemann found there, which now reside in the Athens National Museum. Now let me show you where they came from.
Excerpt from my travel diary:
"Today we pay our respects to the stern bastion of Mycenae, a short drive inland from the bay of Nafplion. We head into the surrounding farm country fenced by low hills, punctuated with knobby outcroppings. Orange groves scent the air just outside the city outskirts. As always, the profusion of flowers on banks and meadows is breathtaking, spilling into groves of dusty gray-green olive trees and stands of tall, dark cypress. Soon we take a road leading up into the hills..."
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Photo Gallery, including Treasury of Atreus
Recommended Links, including 360° VR Panoramas
Detailed interactive site map of Mycenae
[Note: My LJ post on Nauplion and the Gulf of Corinth had a broken link -- now fixed -- it should have linked here!]
5th May 2005
The winding mountain road threaded olive groves and lonely towns, hugging steep, bleak hillsides cropped by sheep and brown goats. Hazy blue mountains slanted down to the sea. After a few hours we crossed an incredibly long suspension bridge spanning the Gulf of Corinth from northern to southern Greece (the Peloponnese). Halfway across, we gazed westward across the Ionian Sea towards Italy. One of the islands out there was rocky Ithaka, home of Odysseus.
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Photo Gallery, including Corinth Canal
Recommended Links, including interactive map
Items from my shop: Asklepios, god of healing
The rest of the group headed off to lunch in a nearby town, but I'm never satisfied with the modern world when the ancient beckons. The museum closed at three. So I returned with one couple and gave them the best guided tour I could manage, lavishing love on familiar old sculptures and helping them pick out mythological scenes. "Ah, here's Hercules killing the lion!" and "here's Theseus offing some robber he met on the road to Athens," and "hey, look at this tiny Odysseus clinging to a sheep."
Afterwards we took a taxi to the next town and had a late lunch of fried feta cheese(!) in a lovely rooftop cafe overlooking the valley, Greek music playing. I snapped a few photos of the stone village with its stairs, cheese shops...
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Delphi Photo Gallery, with a
heck of a lot of details about
the archaelogical site tucked
into the photo descriptions
4th May 2005
An early morning trek to the Delphi Museum on the hill below the site landed us in the mob of a French cruise ship moored in the Bay of Corinth at the mouth the valley below. However, the museum offered up its treasures as well as people:
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Photo Gallery of the Museum
The Myth of Kleobis and Biton
Recommended Links and Books on Delphi
More on the Oracle of Delphi
An early morning trek to the Delphi Museum on the hill below the site landed us in the mob of a French cruise ship moored in the Bay of Corinth at the mouth the valley below. However, the museum offered up its treasures as well as people: - the Siphnean Treasury, an early classical building whose sculptures stand at the beginning of Greek art's golden age
- a giant Sphinx from Naxos, originally towering over the site on a great column
- Kleobis and Biton, whose myth I'll explain below
- Many charming votives (small pieces of art offered to the gods)
- A fine kylix (flattened vase) decorated with an image of the god Apollo
- Gold and ivory statues of Apollo and his sister Artemis, burned black in an ancient fire
- The bronze Delphi charioteer (right), a famous example of the early classical style
- Yet another Antinoos (emperor Hadrian's late lamented lover), this one styled as a strapping bodybuilder
(Read on...)
Also in this section:
Photo Gallery of the Museum
The Myth of Kleobis and Biton
Recommended Links and Books on Delphi
More on the Oracle of Delphi
Following the road and the old pilgrim's path in reverse, we come to the outflow of the Kastalian Spring, whose falls upslope are hidden by gnarled trees. Beside the modern road is an ancient walled enclosure with broken steps leading down to a pool where suppliants once bathed. It is studded with purple flowers, and acacias grow over it, covered in ivy. Beside us, a moss-bedded stone channel in the rock bears a swift-flowing freshet down to the pool. I risk a drink and wash my face in the cold mountain water.Athena beckons us on. Farther along the road, on the opposite side from Apollo's sanctuary, we descend long dusty switchbacks in the afternoon sun. We soon wish were were back at the Kastalian Spring! We nearly give up, despite the ancient gray-green olives all around us promising that the goddess' sanctuary is near.
(Read on...)
Mountains rise around us, blue in the haze, their sheer rock walls laced with waterfalls. At last, rounding the shoulder of Parnassos, we see the ruins of a little round temple to the left, far below on the olive-clad slope, which Anna our guide identifies as the Temple of Athena Pronaios. Just past it the road bends left sharply, following a fold in the mountainside; to the right through dark trees we see the sacred spring where pilgrims once purified themselves. Past that, the sanctuary of Apollo mounts Parnassos' steep heights with grayish-pink columns peeping through dark cypress.(Read more...)
Also in This Section:
Maps of Delphi
It's been a busy month: finishing my coursework for my PhD program, preparing for the dissertation, preparing for surgery!
Nevertheless, I haven't been entirely idle. In addition to an in-depth webpage on Volcanoes, I have gotten back to Greece. Next up, Delphi! So far the page is just getting started, but I've gotten the first two sections written. Preview:
"Know Thyself" was inscribed over the entrance to the famous temple at Delphi.
According to Dr. Christine Downing, this is not a call to Jungian self-analysis, but a reminder that we are mortal.
Delphi's god is Apollo, Pythian Apollo, "Apollo who shoots from afar" or "the god that comes from afar." He is not really the sun god -- that's Helios -- although in later times the distinction between them became blurred. Rather, he is the god of "clarity, consciousness, clear boundaries, distinguishing things, and day."
Temples to Apollo arise on sites once sacred to Gaia, Mother Earth. These are human-built structures in wild, lonely, harsh landscapes.
(Read on...)
Also in this Section:
Introduction to the god Apollo
About the Oracle of Delphi
The Myth of Oedipus
Nevertheless, I haven't been entirely idle. In addition to an in-depth webpage on Volcanoes, I have gotten back to Greece. Next up, Delphi! So far the page is just getting started, but I've gotten the first two sections written. Preview:
"Know Thyself" was inscribed over the entrance to the famous temple at Delphi. According to Dr. Christine Downing, this is not a call to Jungian self-analysis, but a reminder that we are mortal.Delphi's god is Apollo, Pythian Apollo, "Apollo who shoots from afar" or "the god that comes from afar." He is not really the sun god -- that's Helios -- although in later times the distinction between them became blurred. Rather, he is the god of "clarity, consciousness, clear boundaries, distinguishing things, and day."
Temples to Apollo arise on sites once sacred to Gaia, Mother Earth. These are human-built structures in wild, lonely, harsh landscapes.
(Read on...)
Also in this Section:
Introduction to the god Apollo
About the Oracle of Delphi
The Myth of Oedipus
The freeway follows the route of the old Sacred Way to Eleusis, fourteen miles through refineries, quarries, and a run-down factory town surrounding the ancient sanctuary. It is so small to have held something to great, even with the added fountains (long gone), stone courtyard, walls and gates added by the Romans.
Outside the gates, the foundations of a temple of Artemis and Poseidon -- strange bedfellows! -- remind me of Chris' words that the cults did not always follow the familiar patterns of myth. Poppies, verbena, and little yellow flowers sprout in profusion between cut stones and spill out into a meadow that Persephone no doubt appreciates.
(Read on...)
Also in this Section:
Lecture notes on the Myths of Demeter and Persephone
Re-telling of the Demeter/Persephone myth (slightly revised)
Recommended links on Eleusis
Photo gallery
Lecture notes on the Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria
Outside the gates, the foundations of a temple of Artemis and Poseidon -- strange bedfellows! -- remind me of Chris' words that the cults did not always follow the familiar patterns of myth. Poppies, verbena, and little yellow flowers sprout in profusion between cut stones and spill out into a meadow that Persephone no doubt appreciates.
(Read on...)
Also in this Section:
Lecture notes on the Myths of Demeter and Persephone
Re-telling of the Demeter/Persephone myth (slightly revised)
Recommended links on Eleusis
Photo gallery
Lecture notes on the Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria
Heads full of famous art, we were bussed back to the hotel for a late lunch. But food could wait -- Athens' archaelogical sites and museums closed at 2:30! I had seen something tucked against the lower slopes of the Acropolis that I did not want to miss.
(Read on...)
(Read on...)
Next were the classical and Hellenistic art galleries, and I could have spent days here. A few samples of its fine collection:
This imposing statue, like most bronze sculptures, was recovered from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. Bronzes are very rare, since metal is usually melted down and recycled. Many marble sculptures are in fact copies, often by later Roman artists. Added treestumps and supports are usually a telltale giveaway of a copy.
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Photo gallery of classical and Hellenistic Greek sculpture
Gifts featuring images of Greek art
Bronze Zeus of Artemesion
(Taking aim with a thunderbolt)
Classical Period, c. 460 BCE
This imposing statue, like most bronze sculptures, was recovered from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. Bronzes are very rare, since metal is usually melted down and recycled. Many marble sculptures are in fact copies, often by later Roman artists. Added treestumps and supports are usually a telltale giveaway of a copy.
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Photo gallery of classical and Hellenistic Greek sculpture
Gifts featuring images of Greek art
After a quick bus tour of the city, past the Corinthian temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and the stadium of the first modern Olympics, we arrived at the National Museum, Athens' largest collection of ancient art.The rooms are arranged in chronological order, and contain a hit parade of art history students' "must know" artifacts.
The first room covers the Mycenaean period, remembered centuries later by the classical Greeks in myths, cults, and Homeric epic. The Mycenaean period for them was like the age of King Arthur for us, a time of great kings and legendary warriors like Achilles.
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Photo Galleries of Greek art (Mycenaean, archaic)
Recommended Links on phases of Greek art (art history)
Finally, we were given all of 15 minutes to explore the Acropolis on our own before racing back down the hill to meet the bus. I do not recall now how I managed to do as much as I did in that brief amount of time!
[...]
At the west end of the Erechtheion I found Athena's sacred olive (said to be sprung from the original tree).
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Recommended links on Erechtheion Temple
Recommended books on Greek art and archaeology
Gifts featuring photos of Acropolis monuments
[...]
At the west end of the Erechtheion I found Athena's sacred olive (said to be sprung from the original tree).
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Recommended links on Erechtheion Temple
Recommended books on Greek art and archaeology
Gifts featuring photos of Acropolis monuments
We moved to the small Acropolis Museum, half-buried in the hill just east of the Parthenon.Now I'm going to get a little dry and dusty, and teach you some art history! It will help you notice more when you look at Greek art.
The Acropolis Museum is full of Archaic (pre-Classical) sculpture, figures with enigmatic smiles, almond-shaped eyes and hair like Egyptian wigs...
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Recommended links on Greek art and sculpture
Gifts featuring Greek art
Our first day with the rest of the tour group!
A bus whisks us to the foot of the Acropolis around 9:30, saving another long hike. We have our exercise, however, making a rapid forced march up the winding Greek path and Roman steps to the Propylaia.
From there the city stretches out below, with another fine view of the Temple of Hephaistos and Agora and the modern city beyond. We don't dilly-dally, passing the empty cage of white scaffolding (carefully painted to match the local marble) indicating the ghost of the Nike Temple above us on our right, the columns of the north wing of the Propylaia that housed paintings in antiquity on our left (see photo). Then we pass through the Propylaia itself and catch our first glimpse of the Parthenon...
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
My Parthenon and Erechtheion Photo Gallery
Recommended Links on Acropolis and/or Parthenon
A bus whisks us to the foot of the Acropolis around 9:30, saving another long hike. We have our exercise, however, making a rapid forced march up the winding Greek path and Roman steps to the Propylaia.
From there the city stretches out below, with another fine view of the Temple of Hephaistos and Agora and the modern city beyond. We don't dilly-dally, passing the empty cage of white scaffolding (carefully painted to match the local marble) indicating the ghost of the Nike Temple above us on our right, the columns of the north wing of the Propylaia that housed paintings in antiquity on our left (see photo). Then we pass through the Propylaia itself and catch our first glimpse of the Parthenon...
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
My Parthenon and Erechtheion Photo Gallery
Recommended Links on Acropolis and/or Parthenon
Panorama of Agora and Athens from Areopagus Hill
Temple of Hephaistos, left; Stoa of Attalos, Right
Distant left: Marble Quarry for Parthenon, still in use
Descending the heights, we cut through the edge of the Agora, where a few ruins were still open to visitors, including the foundations of a temple to Hekate. There I got my first taste of what was to become a familiar sight of which I never tired: red, red poppies overrunning the old stones, wild barley grasses rustling in the wind.
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Book Recommendation for Greek Mythology
On Sunday we slept in, then set out from the Central Hotel to see what the city might show us. Squares were filled with people breaking their Easter fast on roast lamb spitted over open coals just as Homer described. There was music and dancing everywhere.(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Glimpses of Agora and Acropolis
Custom gifts with photos of Greek temples!
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