Mystras and Pylos

February 24, 2007

Pylos, Greece

I am going to tell you first about Mystras et al from yesterday, and Messini, which we visited today.

Yesterday at Mystras was one of the most beautiful vistas (I know, I say a lot of the places have great views) I think I have seen so far on this trip. The day was not particularly clear, nor was the land below THAT spectacular, but we were viewing it from the top of these middle-age ruins that somehow made the grey day bright and sunny.

We walked up a steep incline to enter the town, which was a mass of tumbled walls, grass, and churches. Originally there were four monasteries up here, now only one is still in existence. However, all of the walls of these buildings are done in these small grey stones which are accented everywhere with small bits of terracotta, set in to emphasize the shapes of the arches and the windows. Mystras was a city founded during the period of Byzantine occupation in the area (in 1262) around Sparta, and passed into the hands of the Franks during the 4th crusade, was returned to the Byzantines and was finally occupied by the Turks until the modern city of Sparta was founded below in 1834 and Mystras was abandoned. Stepping past the main gate and into the maze of small streets and winding stairs and fallen down medieval buildings made me feel like I had stepped straight into Ladyhawke. Any moment Etienne of Navarre was going to turn around the corner, completely armed, and demand to know why we were here, with his faithful hawk perched on his shoulder. (This was one of my and my sister's favorite movies during the age of VHS, and although it has really bad 80s music, the story is quite romantic.)

The first place on Mytstras that we visited was the Church of Hagia Sophia, a small basilican type church with three aisles and a dome at the top. Stepping inside, we could see the evidence of the years and of Turkish occupation clearly etched upon the walls. Some of the early early frescoes were badly damaged—the paint so faded and crackled that the figures were difficult to make out. In other places the paintings were gone entirely. Still, what we could see of the church recalled the busy splendor of the other greek orthodox churches we visited in Cyprus. Saints were everywhere, and scenes from Jesus’ life adorned some of the ceilings—those that were not whitewashed by the turks.

Stepping outside we wandered around the old city, passing through tumbled down arches with windows that looked onto the sky, staircases that led nowhere, and wildflowers growing out of the walls until we reached the remains of the palace. This part of the site was undergoing reconstruction, so some of the beauty of the building was marred by scaffolding and construction noises, but what we could see were the remains of a long hall inset with gothic (Frankish influenced) pointed arches and some of the trefoil windows.

We also saw the one monastery that was still in existence, the Monastery of Pentenesa—which Toumazou said meant “the queen of all”. Like many of the others, this was a three aisle basilica which was surrounded by a terrace on one side and a courtyarded space around which the cells of the nuns were. The place was quaint—the doors were painted colors and terracotta flowerpots lined the windowsills, and the inside of the church was gilded and painted with fresoces from a variety of times. Next to the apse of the church was a small shrine area covered with these small tags. Each tag was a thin piece of metal embossed with a specific body part—an ear, an arm, or sometimes a whole human figure, that was presented to the altar in hopes for miracle healing. All of us had been to Epidauros the day before, and the whole scenario simply smacked of Asklepios. I guess some things never change, people will pray for a whole body when nothing else will remedy them…

We continued to walk around Mystras for the better part of the morning, seeing the public latrines in the lower city, the remains of some houses, and another church called the Church of Saint Demetrios.

We continued to the museum on the site, which was small but very well done, and showed some excellent examples of old manuscripts. Written in an old cursive type of script, and with the greek letters, it looked completely foreign and yet totally fascinating. The upper portions of the books were covered with an elaborate type of scrollwork with tons of whirls and interlaced lines which I found practically impossible to replicate.

We left mystras in the early part of the afternoon and returned briefly to the hotel to change our shoes and then we were off again, this time to the Spartan museum. In the Roman period, Sparta was a big site of mosaic manufacturing, so we got to see a few excellent examples of mosaic work, done in a glittering array of glass tesserae. The fact that the Romans figured out how to depict volume, light and shade in simple square pieces of stone still boggles my mind. We also saw some examples of the Greek masks that were used in festivals and theater events, which ranged from incredibly realisitic to super-grotesque, and some sculpture.

One sculpture in particular showed the semi-nude torso of a young man in perfect contrapposto. Except for the fact that his head and arms were missing. He was situated in the perfect height that if you stood behind him you would appear to be that missing head. Several pictures like this were taken—“look, I am an ancient statue!” before we left the museum. I had become an ancient greek man!

We left the museum at around 2 pm—an early day! Some people opted to continue on to a museum about the history of production of olives, but Ambrice, Anne, Jess and I decided to return to the hotel. I found a bookstore and bought a new notebook, having already run through mine, and went running around the town of Sparta.

Dinner that night was a lovely bean soup which I really enjoyed. We had excellent dinner conversation and watched an episode of Law and Order—TV is something that almost NEVER happens here, we are too busy seeing things to stay in and study, some work, and bed.

This morning came early as usual, but Jess, my roomie, decided that we needed to turn on music and it made the experience highly enjoyable. I came down to breakfast humming “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” and the rest of the day was progressed in an incredibly upbeat mood. I need music before breakfast more often.

We took a long bus ride today, finally ending up in Pylos. Before we had reached our destination, however, we stopped at the city of Messene, which was founded in 370 BC as a part of fortification against the rabidly expansive Spartans. First, we visited the massive gate of the fortification wall that enclosed the city. None of the lintels closing off the doorways survive except for one fallen down block, which seemed almost as big as the huge lintel at Mycenae. The gates had two openings, requiring the enemy to pass through the first and be corralled and attacked as they figured out how to storm the second, and was supposedly laid out in 85 days—quite impressive.

We loaded the bus again and continued driving into the city proper, which at its center cointained a huge theater, supposedly one of the largest in antiquity. Much of it no longer exists, and although it was fenced in, Toumazou hopped the fence in quest of some pictures. Seeing him stand next to the massive earthworks gave me a truer sense of scale than simply standing outside—it really was much bigger than it initially appeared.

WE then went to the Asklepion—composed of a massive colonnaded couryard and surrounded on all four sides by a number of stoas, and with a temple in the middle, this complex was impressive in its size and complexity. Within it was the remains of an Odeion, a type of theater that was enclosed and used for political gatherings as well as performances. Like a theater, the seats are semicircular and are stepped upward, but the plan as a whole is contained within a rectangular footprint, and rises at a very steep angle. Almost all of the Odeion was preserved, and we assembled on the seats for the lecture that Toumazou gave us. Continuing around the Asklepion we reached the side of a tomb of a famous and revered scupture of Messene named Damophon, a bath complex, and a number of temples. All contained within a massive collonade. At the center was the Temple of Asklepios, of which only the foundations remain.

Then we continued down a sloping area to reach the stadium! area. The stadium, unlike the other ones that I have seen so far, is surrounded on three sides by a stoa, and the west stoa has a massive entrance archway. I wonder if this may have been added later, or the other parts to the stadium areas had been destroyed in antiquity. Nevertheless, this stadium was impressive in its restoration. It had been later modified in Roman times to accommodate gladiator contests, so the curved part of the stadium was enclosed with a low wall and the rest of the seats (if there were seats, some of the stadiums were just sloping embankments) were left to decay. It was warming up by now, and we ventured out onto the arena floor to survey the stadium from below. I ended up walking the distance all of the way until the grassy end, which had a mausoleum just past the open part of the stadium. From the mausoleum’s porch we were again afforded a view of sloping green land and fields of olive and orange trees.

Turning back to look at the stadium, I noticed Toumazou gesturing to point out to me that on the right hand side there was a place where the simple bleacher like steps had been changed to high backed stone seats separated from the rest of the seating by a low wall on either side—judges’ seating, perhaps? Or the athletes? I will have to research to find out more.

Other notes: the seats do not extend all of the way down to the arena floor; there is a small retaining wall and only some of the staircases (4, with 2 blocked off in ancient times) reached all of the way down. On the second set of steps were a series of holes, indicating the presence of a metal fence or barrier to privilege the lowest set of steps. I wonder how many of these refinements are Roman or Greek? And why they were made. I would like to look at the continued presence of this privileged seat and see where it leads me…

After holding some impromptu races, and some rolls down the steep hills of the stadium, we truged back up the hill to the bus for the long ride to Pylos. I slept almost the whole way.

Arriving in Pylos was like being on Cyprus again—you pull into this small quaint town that has a tiny harbour ringed with brightly colored boats and charming shops and houses. Everything here was colored this lovely tan color, including the rocks that dotted the pebbly shores. Our hotel is located directly on the water, and a short walk away is a small rocky beach. Upon arriving, some of the boys decided to take a swim in the water, which was frigid cold. Chris borrowed my goggles and even did some strokes in the freezing water. We all watched them wince as they entered the water, but how many times can you swim in Pylos? Stewart, who had been on the verge of going running, stopped and asked me if I wanted to jump in. I decided to, but only after a short run to get as warm as possible before that cold cold dip. So we took a tour around the small picturesque harbor before approaching the little beach, stripping off our shirts, and shrieking our way into the water, which was cold enough to make our limbs feel completely numb.

It was actually quite invigorating to submerge myself entirely and rush out of the water and into the warmer seeming air. Both of our legs were completely pink from the cold, so we returned to the hotel to take very hot showers and rinse out our salty clothes. It was a good experience, though.

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out in the little town, with a short jaunt in order to find dinner. Ambrice Jess and I went to this very cute little pizzeria that had excellent greek salad and a very good pizza. The tomatoes and cucumbers here are simply amazing and I enjoyed every bite of the salad, and the pizza had this curious spicy sauce that made us drink gallons of water, but was actually tasty and enjoyable. We walked around the town for a while on the way back, checked email (poaching internet as always) on the steps of this small church, and came back to the hotel. I have my presentation on Sports at Olympia tomorrow, so nothing exciting really happened besides preparing for that. And now, sleep.