Napflia

February 21, 2007

Napflio, Greece

We have seen some very nice sites in the past few days. Yesterday we got to see the ancient city of Corinth, as well as Nemea, one of the sites of the Panhellenic Games, and today we saw Epidauros.

Yesterday started entirely too early. I think that I may have been spoiled by being able to sleep in on the off day the day before, but the wake up call rang and it felt entirely too early for me to even try to start to focus. However, we did as we were asked and dutifully loaded up the bus to head off to our first site of the day, Corinth. Corinth was an important site throughout much of ancient times because it is located right on the isthmus of the peloponnese, that tiny strip of land that connects it to the rest of Greece. People have used this area for years to transport goods and ships back and forth, and tried numerous times to build a canal there, with little success until the 18th or 19th century when someone decided to use dynamite to blast the hard Greek rock away.

Our first stop of the day was at a museum, where we saw a lot of examples of excellent Greek and Roman sculpture. My favorite ones from the museum were these large statues of ancient roman barbarians, who were trussed up and used as caryatids for the entrance to a large public building on the site. In contrast to much of the classical stuff which contains these austere looking senators with short hair and long flowing togas, these barbarians had short tunics and long flowing hair, and their arms looked like they were stuck in some kind of straight jacket. They stood gloomily contemplating the lands they had lost since the early 200s AD.

We got outside and got introduced to another director of excavations. This guy was tall and spindly with a british accent and proceeded to take us on a whirlwind tour of the site, lecturing the whole time on a series of complicated mythologies, dealing with Dionysus, Persephone, and Helen, deities that were associated with the underworld and with the harvest. Part of the sanctary contains this odd feature of a low wall of triglyphs and metopes, which partially concealed a hidden passage into a Doric temple. We are unsure of what the function of this may have been except that the temple above contains the same triglyph and metope series as the lower segment, which linked the two. This director of excavations seemed to think that perhaps the triglyph and metope series set into the ground represented the upper portions of an underground temple which reflected this area’s obsession with gods of the underworld. Next to the strange “underground temple” is a sacred spring, the lowest portion of the sanctuary. All of these parts were related in a way that he tried to explain to us, having to do with Olympic gods vs. gods of the earth and gods of the underworld. I think he probably assumed that we knew way more mythology than we did—everyone was totally confused by the end of the speech, but what I did manage to gather was this:

Helen was a lot more than we thought she was. According to Homer, she is just some stupid girl who gets carted around by various princes and starts a war and just generally causes some problems. But there are some pre-Homer stories that actually draw parallels between Helen and Persephone, that girl that is snatched by Hades to reside in the underworld, and Medea, the women who (at Corinth) decided to get mad at Theseus who abandoned her for some other woman and killed their children, and then left and came back. So all three of these women are associated with lots of death and sorrow, and they tend to leave and return. I think this guy was trying to tell us that Helen was deified at some point in a way that makes her a harvest like god, and as such the consort of Dionysus, who besides being the god of wine and drinking, is also a harvest god and the god of the underworld. All very convoluted. However, I will never think about Helen the same way again. Her whole job was to leave and return, just like Persephone—to make the world the way it is. Homer just decided to besmirch her name for some reason. Or something like that.

Corinth was a huge sprawling site and we did not get to see as much of it as I would have liked, even with the wonderfully confusing mythology lecture. We got to see the sacred well, and a huge temple to Apollo there, which was a good example of a very early Doric temple, and then it was on to the next activity! Everything here is go, go, go.

The next place we saw was Acrocorinth, called so because it quite appropriately was located on the acropolis next to Corinth. The day was cold and grey and I was worried about getting cold until I saw the ascent to the top, which was by these very rough cobblestoned ramps. We all had to work pretty hard not to slip on the slick uneven ground, but reaching the top was definitely worth it. In spite of the fog which obscured the far away views, the closer regions were spread out below us to see. Peering over these high stone walls, we glimpsed the patchwork of rocky countryside below us, and farther off in the distance, the two bays that flank either side of Corinth. Everything was kind of indistinct and green and hazy, and the tumbled down stones all around us added to the quiet hushed mystery of the place. We got to wander around a bit, took some pictures, and headed down the ramp once more, which was quite a bit more difficult than ascending it. I did not see the view the whole way down, I just concentrated on my feet and not breaking my neck.

After a short bus ride which afforded a good opportunity for a nap, we arrived at the site of Nemea. Nemea is best known as the site of the first of the labors of Hercules, in which he is sent to kill the Nemean lion, whose cave exists in the rocks up somewhere—according to Toumazou the locals are always happy to point it out to you, but we did not get the chance. The most important thing for ME, however, was the presence of the Nemean Games, one of the four Panhellenic Games that took place in Greece; basically on par with the Olympics.

The stadium still exists in a remarkable state of preservation. Walking into the site, on the right we saw the remains of a potedarium—a colonnaded building which may have been used for a changing room for the athletes prior to their competitions. This building can be accessed from inside the stadium, through a tunnel that comes in about halfway down one of the long sides of the stadium. The stadium itself is oriented north-south and like most Greek structures takes advantage of the hills on either side of it to create a sort of natural embankment, which was enhanced by stone steps that are still visible.

We walked all of the way down to the sphendone (the curved part of the U of the stadium) to examine the starting blocks. Actually, they are more like starting grooves—parallel lines incised into a big block of stone. Runners would start standing up with their feet staggered in the grooves, instead of on all fours like they do now. The greeks even used a rather sophisticated starting mechanism to control when the racers could go—a series of gates much like those used at horse races, to prevent cheating. The most common race was down the length of the stadium to the open end—called (lets guess) a stadion. There were other races too, but this was the big one.

The things that most interested me were that supposedly the judges’ stand/ privileged seating area were located close to the entrance tunnel for the athletes. The tunnel itself was interesting too—it contained a lot of graffiti dealing with the physical prowess of the athletes. I feel, however, that the connection with being able to see the athletes enter the field of play, and the prominence of the stone seats around the entrance are related. In some stadiums the good seats are close to one of the ends (like at the Panathenaic stadium) but here they focused around this special entrance passage. Something to ponder further. Did all of these Greek stadiums contain an entrance passage specifically for athletes? Was it located in the same spot? And did the position of the privileged seats change for any reason? All of these questions are important to my thesis, I think. I feel that these two things relate power and spectacle and ritual. Its all in how you enter the event and how you perceive it…

Anyway, after seeing the stadium we went to the museum, where I got to look at some examples of athletic paraphernalia, limited usually to a few discuses and these stones that were used to assist in long-jumping. I really want to see some representations of the athletic events—we had some pictures in the museum of painted pottery, and I want to see more about how the athletes looked, what the pottery was used for, etc. I think that would help too.

Ok, enough on the thesis. At Nemea we also visited the temple complex—athletics and religion were always associated with the Greeks—this particular one was dedicated to Zeus which was currently in the process of reconstruction, and was covered in scaffolding.

Then, it was back on the bus, after a long day, to the hotel. Last night I mostly spent studying (we have a test coming up) and catching up on email, and trying to apply for this crazy scholarship in Architectural History. It dosen’t require much from me except a personal statement, but it wants me to list my top 5 grad school programs (!) so I had to go online and do some searching. I have some schools in mind, but had not really done much searching about it so this scholarship opportunity gave me the jumpstart I needed. And I went out to dinner at this pizza place that had the most amazing pizza: sausage, green pepper, and onion with really good cheese. Yum.

And then more studying, some talk with my roommates Jess Dwyer and Katie, which actually ended up going waaaay into the night, and sleep. We can never get enough sleep.

This morning was like pulling teeth too. Our wake up calls recently have been earlier, around 6:30, so its even harder to get out of bed. But we were seeing Epidauros today! So it was worth it to make the effort. The day started out grey and ugly, too, so I was worried about getting wet. Luckily by the end of today it was absolutely beautiful! And the sites we saw were pretty cool too.

Epidauros, besides being known for the theater, was also a huge site for healing in ancient times. There are many temples dedicated to this hero-turned-god named Asklepios, and the area is simply littered with fallen down stones from multiple temples and sanctuaries and altars. The most impressive of them were the tholos—a round building that may have also been used to track the sun’s progression across the sky. The building is in the middle of being reconstructed, and contains an upper level with a tiled floor and a circular peristyle of excellent Corinthian columns, most of which are scattered about on the ground. The other part of the tholos is underground: three concentric circles linkd at different points make up a labyrinth whose purpose still remains unclear. Despite the noise and the dust of the reconstruction, I was intrigued at the remains of this building which seemed so different from the normal rectangular type of Greek building. And a labyrinth in the basement? I wonder what the Greeks were trying to make so difficult to hide down there.

On one side of the tholos was another building which was used for ritual sleeping. Those who had physical ailments or diseases would make a dedication to the god Asklepios and sleep in the building. In their dreams the god would come to them and cure them, or else tell them how to be cured. Again, this building is under the processes of reconstruction, but we could see a long collonade that paralleled a low wall, and the size of the building alone was enough to impress.

On the way out, I ran into another stadium. Apparently Epidauros was the site of some smaller, lesser known games, but the stadium is still in fairly good condition. Unlike those we had seen earlier, this one did not contain a curved section at the end, but did have stone seats placed into the hillside on either side of the running track. On the same side of the track at at Nemea was an entrance tunnel, which was linked to a palaestra—a colonnaded building in this case used for the wrestling and smaller events. In both cases the entrance tunnel was flanked by the judges stands and well preserved stone seats—an indication of privileged seating again, and the tunnel was linked on the other side to something related to athletic preparation or another form of competition. I will be curious to see if the two trends continue. We did not get to step inside of the stadium, we only photographed it from above—but I could clearly see the starting lines, seating, and entrance tunnel. Perhaps this is a place to research further.

Finally, we got to the theater at Epidauros. The place is huge, it holds about 15,000 spectators and like the Panathenaic Stadium was divided into two registers of seating separated by a diazoma. The stadium has practically perfect acoustics and all of the seats are well preserved. Many of us raced up the stairs to the top, arriving considerably out of breath but having a wonderful view of the semi circle of the stadium laid out below us. In the center of the stage, a woman was showing another tour group how good the acoustics were by walking all around the stage and clapping. We got the point after about 30 seconds, but she continued walking and clapping around the entire perimeter of the orchestra until she felt satisfied. Despite this annoyance, we later tested the acoustics on our own by dropping a coin onto the speaker’s platform in the middle of the stage. We could hear it all of the way from the upper seats.

The day was bright and clear by now and we slowly made our way down the steps and out of the theater—onto the next activity!

Tiryns was the next stop—a mycenean fortification that basically consisted of huge huge cyclopean walls. These walls were called such because they are made of huge blocks of unfinished stone, a project that would have taken a giant to complete. And on top of this, some of the walls contained tunnels! Corbeled vaults of these huge huge stones placed in such a way that the weight is pushed outward to the walls and the roof does not collapse. Toumazou led us on a tour of the site, pointing out the cuttings for a massive gate, and the palace at the top which contained a megaron structure. From the top we could look down over the walls and see, again, the land spread out below us. The sun was shining and it felt good—I could have laid on those Cyclopean walls and sunbathed all day.

The last stop was back in Napflio—we went to the old venetian citadel that rises above the city skyline and is visible from wherever you go in the city. We arrive with only 20 minutes left until closing time (all of these places seem to close at around 3 or 4, luckily… we are always EXHAUSTED by the end of the day.) But the view, as always, was really amazing. We ascended up this steep cobblestone street to the entrance of the fortress, and moved back in time. I swear I could have turned the corner and run into some medieval lady chasing after her lord. All of the cobblestones had bits of moss growing in between them, and wildflowers grew on the grassy parts. We reached the outer edge of the citadel and we could see the port of Napflio laid out below us, complete with a lower citadel done in the same venetian style as this upper one, and far out into the bay an island with another castle upon it. One of the people working on the site showed us around the castle as quickly as he could; we walked through arches and doorways and massive walls of thick cut stone, and breathed in the excellent fresh clear day. It was lovely, and I would definitely go back if I had the chance.

Anne and Ambrice and I returned to the hotel, put down our stuff, and immediately went out to get some excellent gelato, which is an Italian type of ice cream that is SO good! I ordered black forest cake flavored gelato and ate it in slow savory bites. Delicious. We had a test coming up so the rest of the night was pretty much occupied with studying.