Greece Part 4: Santorini, Athens, and the decline of civilizations

We lounged for two hours on the ferry from Heraklion, the city of Hercules, to the lovely island of Santorini. Weeks earlier I worried about that leg of our itinerary. I imagined a stomy ride on the Aegean Sea and motion sickness. But the sea was calm.

 Above, a view from our hotel, the Hellas Family Hotel in Fira on Santorini.  

 

 

Santorini is all angular whites and blues set against sea and sky.   

Above, a giant cruise ship looks tiny in the caldera formed by the ancient volcano. Small boats ferried passengers from the ship to the island for shopping and tours. 

In Santorini, Cindy and I, Mr. and Ms. Nerdly, visited the Museum of Prehistoric Thera and the Archaeological Museum of Thera, (Thera is the Greek name for the island known to tourists as Santorini, a medieval name honoring Saint Irene.) 

I loved the colors, composition, and fishing scene of this fresco from about 1600 B.C. You can see it in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, Santorini. The fresco was recovered from the ancient Akrotiri site on the island, preserved by volcanic ash. 

 

Above, the all-marble Panathenaic Stadium Olympic Stadium in Athens was built to host the revival of the Olympic games in 1896. It's on the site of an Olympic stadium from 1,900 years earlier. 

Another stadium was built in Athens to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, but some of the events and ceremonies were held here in this older stadium.

 On one of our last days in Athens, we hiked to a hill opposite the Acropolis with a great view of the restored Parthenon. 

Above, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art we saw a series of works on the theme of our throwaway consumer society. Our society's ability to produce stuff far exceeds our ability to consume, so incessant marketing urges us to consume more and more and get rid of the old.

Of course we had fun on the trip. All of the hikes, shared meals, and conversations with a group of friendly, generous fellow travelers was great.

 Above, group shot in Meteora, early in our trip, with our intrepid guide, Sam, kneeling in front. Cindy wants me to point out that the group changed slightly later in the trip, as a few were near the end of their trip and a few new people joined us for that birthday photo in Part 1. 

Final thought: Lessons of ancient history

In addition was my personal journey. A kind of literary and historical journey through Greece. Each of our personal biographies affects how we view the world. We can never assume that we know what other people are seeing or feeling or thinking. 

All of the archeological sites in Greece immersed me in the relatively recent emergence of homo sapiens -- in maybe the last 10,000 years -- as the dominant species on the planet. It was only in that time period that humans began farming, domesticating animals, creating large settlements, and communicating with written language. 

I've just been reading an article on Medium titled "The Lost War That Wiped Out 95% of the Ancient World," which focuses on what it calls "the late Bronze Age collapse from 1200-1150 B.C." It describes how an advanced and globalized society was pushed into a dark age. The empires of the Eastern Mediterranean weakened and collapsed because of a series of disasters: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought, migration, social turmoil, disease, and warfare. 

 

Map from The World History Encyclopedia.

We were able to see the results at many of the archeological sites we visited. Some of the disasters were recorded in oral traditions that mixed myth and real events, such as Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey". 

I couldn't help but reflect on Greece's role in the beginnings of our democratic institutions that took hold in Western Europe only 250 years ago. How fragile those institutions are now. Authoritarians are winning the hearts and minds of people around the world now.

Those institutions that we created guarantee our freedoms. I came home with a resolve to dedicate myself to preserving and improving those institutions.

 Greece Part 1: In the footsteps of Ulysses and Lord Byron

Greece Part 2: Monasteries on pillars, the 300 Spartans, and the oracle at Delphi

Greece Part 3: Tourist town, Crete, and the Minoan Palace

 

Greece Part 3: Tourist town, Crete, Minoan palace

 

Luxury yachts and tourist ferries fill the harbor at Nafplio. 

Most people come to the seaside tourist town of Nafplio for the shops, restaurants, and beaches. Some geeks like us come to walk among the ruins of Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon. He was the king who, according to legend, led the Greek expedition against Troy, which Homer recounted in his epic poem the"Iliad." 

 Nafplio lies west of Athens on the Peloponnesian peninsula

The story of Troy had its roots in history. Archeologists have discovered extensive evidence of a the siege and sack of a great city near the strategic Strait of the Dardanelles in what is now Turkey. Their finds give credence to details in the epic tale. They have dated Troy's destruction to around 1750 B.C. (If there was Trojan horse, it wouldn't have survived. It was made of wood.)

It probably wasn't the mythical kidnapping of the beautiful Helen by the Trojan prince Paris "that launched a thousand ships" from Mycenae (Christopher Marlowe, "Doctor Faustus"). The real-world cause was probably about control of lucrative trade routes between Greece in the West and the Dardenelles in the East.   

Nearby our tourist hotel lay the ruins of the Mycenaean Empire's palace and citadel. We wanted to soak up some of the history of the Trojan War.

Above, the Lion Gate at the entrance to Mycenae’s citadel near Nafplio. It was the rich and powerful Mycenaean Empire that challenged Troy for control of the Dardanelles trade route.

 

 Inside the Citadel was a tholos tomb, with its characteristic beehive shape and dome vault. 

Above: The wall to the right has been called the Cyclops wall because the blocks of stone were so massive that they were thought in later ages to be the work of the one-eyed giants known as the Cyclopes. The palace and citadel were destroyed, possibly by invaders or a natural disaster -- an earthquake or massive volcanic eruption.

Like layers of an onion

Again and again we were reminded of Greece's role as the cradle of Western Civilization. So much of the past 5,000 years of history is all around you, still standing or restored. 

Every new civilization tries to bury the old. Yet we're discovering more of them all the time in all corners of the world. We saw this pattern of growth and destruction again on the island of Crete.

"History is a nightmare from which I'm trying to awake," said a character in James Joyce's 1922 novel "Ulysses."Joyce structured his characters' one day of wanderings in Dublin on the epic 10-year odyssey of the hero in Homer's epic poem.

 On to Crete

After returning to Athens we boarded a plane for a short flight to the island of Crete. I was very excited to come here because of all I had read about the Minoan civilization, the Minotaur, and the cult of the bull. But more on that in a moment.

Our first stop on Crete was Chania. Its lighthouse (behind Cindy, above) was originally a naval post created by the Venetians around 1600. It was damaged and rebuilt several times, including during World War II. It  was refurbished in 2006. 

Next stop was the town of Agia Roumeli. 

 

 

In the harbor at Agia Roumeli, we saw this breakwall made up of tetrapods. They are similar to ones  used along the Cleveland lakefront to halt erosion.

 A hike

Some of the younger folks in our group decided to hike up through the Samaria Gorge. It was a little too steep for us, so we decided to skip it. 

 

We opted for a less challenging hike along the shore. 

 

 

 

Above: The twisted, gnarled, and shrub-like plants we saw are possibly Mediterranean thyme or spiky burnet, according to the Perplexity.ai tool. Maybe you have some better ideas? 

 

Above, we passed by a number of abandoned stone dwellings or animal enclosures. Farming has given way to tourism on the island. The structures were left to decay. Some people had set up tents among the ruins. Technically, it's illegal. Were they campers or squatters?

 

A ferry to a resort village

 

 

 

On the ferry ride to Loutro, the clear water reflected the blue sky to create this brilliant natural color. No filters or photoshop needed. 

 

Above, the village of Loutro. Swimming here was wonderful. 
 

 

  

 

Above, on one of the hiking trails from Loutro, we saw lots of these flowering plants. My app told me they were Trillium numidica, native to Africa. They like to keep their distance from each other.  

 

The rugged shoreline. We saw sheep and goats foraging in this rocky terrain. 

 

Tiny goats climbed on the near-vertical cliffs above us to feed on the plants sprouting from the rock. Here is the skeleton of one that maybe lost its footing. A warning to us to be careful. 

 

 

We found our walking sticks helped us keep our balance on the uneven terrain.

 The Palace of Minos at Knossos 

 

Above, this fresco depicts a young woman leaping over the horns of a bull onto its back. It was recovered from the archeological site of the Palace of Knossos. (Public domain photo by Gleb Simonov.)
 

I was keen to see the site of the Palace of Minos, the legendary king of Crete. The Minoans were once the dominant civilization in the Aegean region. I had seen images of the palace, its frescoes, statuary, and stunning red columns in various history books. As a reminder of how ancient history is alive in Greece today, we stayed at a hotel in Heraklion, named for Heracles, the mythical hero we know as Hercules. It's a short ride from there to Knossos. 

 

Minoan art, like the fresco above, celebrated the power, fluidity, and fertility of the bull. Knossos was a center of the Mediterranean cult of the bull that continued right up to our own century. Ernest Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" celebrated the bullfight in Spain as "a tragedy in three acts." These days, however, bullfighting there is on its last gasp. Much of society views it as a cruel commercial spectacle.

 

 

 

Above, we saw this fresco of a bull and an olive tree but wondered if it was original or a reproduction.

 

Our guide at Knossos reminded us repeatedly that the arqueological excavation of Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans, beginning in 1900, was controversial. He apparently was sometimes reckless in his digging methods and inaccurate in his restoration work. 

 

 

 

The name of our guide at Knossos, above, was appropriate for her profession as an expert on Greek history: Athena. 

In Homer's "Odyssey," the warrior goddess is often referred to as "the grey-eyed Athena." But our guide's eyes were hidden behind her shades. 

 

 

Another view of the palace.

 

I wondered what happened to this great civilization. At first it was the Minoan culture that influenced the Mycenaeans, who lived on mainland Greece. Later it was the Mycenaeans who conquered all of Crete and took control of Knossos. The Minoans were weakened by the catastrophic volcanic eruption that took place on the island of Thera (today it's called Santorini), around 1600 B.C. It caused destructive earthquakes, tsunamis, and crop failures. 

 

 

Next stop, Santorini

 

 

 

The island above lies in the middle of the caldera from the volcano that destroyed Thera, now called Santorini. 

 

 Greece Part 1: In the footsteps of Ulysses and Lord Byron

Greece Part 2: Monasteries on pillars, the 300 Spartans, and the oracle at Delphi

Greece Part 4: Athens, Santorini, and the fragility of civilizations 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Greece Part 2: Monasteries on pillars, the 300 Spartans, and the oracle at Delphi

Cindy was keen to see the monasteries perched on pillars of rock in Meteora. Above, in the distance, you can see two of them. 

Next stop, Meteora

One of the tourist attractions in Greece is the monasteries of Meteora. We traveled there by bus from Athens. 

 

We hiked up to a monasteries. Many take a bus.  

Twenty-four monasteries were established atop the natural rock pillars of the area, mainly in the second half of the 14th century. At the time, the area was subject to invasions by Ottoman Turks. The monks sought refuge from the chaos. Six of these monasteries are still active and open to visitors.

Over thousands of years, shepherds, hermits, and the just plain antisocial have carved out refuges in the soft sedimentary rock around Meteora 

 Look closely: More cave shelters carved into the mountain rock. 

 

Above, our G-Adventures itinerary. 

A modest memorial at Thermopylae

In the almost 2,500 years since King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fought to hold off the invasion of Greece by the Persians, the landscape has changed dramatically. The Persians found their road to conquest led through a bottleneck with impenetrable mountains on one side and the sea on the other. It was only when a traitor showed the Persians a hidden trail through the mountains that they were able to attack the Spartans from behind and overwhelm them. 

Since then, the sea has retreated by more than a mile. The battlefield memorial includes a modest statue of Leonidas erected in 1955, and there was little at the site to recommend a long visit.

 

 

The rake-bearing maintenance worker appears indifferent to the spear wielded by King Leonidas above him. 

We stopped to take a few photos. I attempted to be clever by capturing the statue of Leonidas, spear in hand, echoed unheroically by a maintenance worker, rake in hand. The spear-rake jest didn't quite work. The dark green backdrop behind the statue didn't help.

Then we hopped on the bus and headed to Delphi. 

Mount Parnassus and the oracle of Apollo

The view from the Delphi archeological site on the slope of Mount Parnassus

England's poets loved to talk about the inspiration of Apollo, the god of music, poetry and the arts. And Delphi, on Mount Parnassus, had a temple dedicated to him. Delphi was also the site of a revered oracle and was celebrated in mythology as the center of the Earth, or "omphalos" in Greek, which is also the word for navel. 

Our Delphi guide surprised me when she connected the words Delphi, womb, navel, and "omphalos". 
 

The guide we hired at Delphi reminded us that the place name shares the same root as the Greek word for womb. So Delphi connected womb, navel, and the center of the Earth. These words and images of human reproduction rang my bell. At the time, I couldn't explain my excitement. It brought me back to my study of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses." Stephen Dedalus, a main character who is steeped in myth and literature, hears the word "omphalos" and imagines an endless string of umbilical cords running through generations of navels, like telephone lines, connecting all of us back to a shared origin. The book is a lot funnier than its reputation as an extremely difficult read. 

But I digress. 

Possibly the world's oldest theater

Delphi inspired other literary connections as well. Classical Greece developed models of drama that we follow today, and Delphi was the site of possibly the world's oldest outdoor theater, nearly 2,500 years old.

Archeologists are still making discoveries at Delphi, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes this ancient theater (above) and the reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians (below). 

 Now it was on to Nafplio, a resort town and tourist attraction, for some relaxing days by the sea. 

 Greece Part 1: In the footsteps of Ulysses and Lord Byron

Greece Part 3: Tourist town, Crete, and the Minoan Palace 

Greece Part 4: Athens, Santorini, and the fragility of civilizations 

 

Greece at last: In the footsteps of Ulysses and Lord Byron

 

This map shows the itinerary of our 12-day trip organized by G-Adventures, the Best of Greece. Cindy and I stretched it out by adding a few days at the beginning and end of the trip. Our guide, Sam (Samouil Mastrovasillis), a native of the island of Rhodes, shared his vast experience of Greek history, language, food, culture, economics, and politics, both recent and ancient. He bounded around, making sure the oldest of us could navigate some tricky hiking trails while encouraging the youngest to test their agility. 

Our fellow travelers made the trip most enjoyable. We had about 15 people most of the way, ranging from older retirees like us down to some younger people who livened things up. The group claimed citizenship or roots in Australia, China, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. Several of the younger people had taken months-long breaks from work to travel. 

 Above, at the Acropolis.

Three weeks by bus, ferry, taxi, and subway

Cindy and I had talked about a trip to Greece many times over the years. She became interested while taking ancient Greek and Latin courses in college. I had read Homer's epics, Greek drama, and history. So we both wanted to see things in person. 

For Western society, Greece represents the beginnings of our social, economic, cultural, religious, and political institutions. I've always been interested in anthropology and geology and the beginnings of human beings on this planet. Where did Greece fit in? I had lots of questions. 

Let's take them one at a time.  

--  Why Greece? Western Europe began rediscovering ancient Greek literature during the Renaissance. Shakespeare's university-educated contemporaries all studied Greek -- the tragedies and comedies, Homer's Trojan War epic, the Iliad, and his epic tale of the journey home from Troy by the victorious Odysseus (Ulysses) in the Odyssey. Brits began including Greece on their grand tours of the continent in the 1700s. 

The Romantic poets, among them Lord Byron, revered the classical poets. He was one of many Brits who fought to liberate Greece from the Ottoman Empire. He died of a fever in 1824 during one of the campaigns. He was 36. 

Day one 

 

That's me on the left. 

On our first day, we were dazzled by the collections in the National Museum of Archeology. The bronze sculpture above of a racing horse ridden by a boy (a common practice in ancient Greece) caught my attention. My friend and professor of classical history John McManamon told me:

"The work is very unusual for depicting a horse in full stride that way. I guess the Greeks started children early on the equestrian arts. So, from what I read, this sculpture was recovered from a shipwreck dating to around 150-140 B.C. off the coast of Cape Artemisia on the Greek island of Euboea."  The sculpture was recovered, in pieces, from the sea floor, by underwater archeologists. It was restored and welded together. 

McManamon himself has written extensively about maritime history in the Mediterranean.  

As it happens, McManamon was a high school classmate, and another of our classmates, Tom Palaima, is an internationally recognized expert on Linear B, the ancient writing system used by Mycenaean Greeks before the Greek alphabet emerged. (I met Tom for the first time since graduation at a recent small reunion of classmates.)

 Above: Horse-drawn chariots and cavalry in full charge are among the favorite subjects of Greek art. This vase was in the vast new Acropolis Museum, Athens, which I highly recommend.

All the pretty horses got me wondering: When did humans first domesticate horses? 

Domesticated horses: a technological revolution

And the answer surprised me: not that long ago. In fact, domestication took place a little over 4,000 years ago, just about yesterday when you consider that agriculture became widespread only about 10,000 years ago. It touched off an explosion of innovation and trade when people first started riding horses and using them to help plow fields, carry messages, wage war, or haul products to market. 

Above: Tiny ceramic containers depicting teams of chariot horses. (My finger for scale. The Acropolis Museum)

Humans domesticated dogs, cattle, sheep, and goats long before they figured out horses. Scientists using DNA and archeological evidence mostly agree that all our modern horses are descended from those domesticated in an area that is now Russia, Ukraine, and the northern Caucusus. 

I've ridden horses only a few times in my life, never with any skill or confidence. They would do as they pleased, pretty much, despite my attempts to guide them. Once on a tour in Costa Rica, my mount got his feet tangled in some wire and became very agitated. A guide helped calm him down and get free before things got out of control.  

But I digress. 

Art, literature, economics, politics

Everywhere we went in Greece we kept runing into evidence of our cultural roots. And I'm talking only about the flowering of civilization that began in the Mediterranean basin. Other civilizations emerged almost simultaneously around the world as agriculture allowed people to gather in large settlements and organize complex societies. 

-- When was it again that agriculture emerged in Eurasia? Because it allowed for large settlements, cities. (It was around 10,000 years ago)

A few thousand years later, the written form of the Greek language began to appear. 

This tablet of early written Greek is from the Acropolis Museum. 

-- When was it again that written language began? Because writing really accelerated development of civilizations, cities, complex societies, taxation, warfare. In what is now Iraq, Sumerian script, cuneiform, began about 5,500 years ago. Ancient Greek writing began with Linear B around 3,500 years ago, and the Greek alphabet around 2,800 years ago.

A trip in space and time 

So. This trip to Greece got us talking and thinking about our beginnings as humans, as urban creatures, as voracious and greedy consumers, as conquerors and conquered, as thinkers, as readers and writers, and as citizens of societies that claim to give us freedom.

And a birthday. Thank you, Sam! 

Above, we took time out to celebrate the birthday of our guide, Sam. He's in the seat of honor at the end of the table. He did a great job for us, and we had a good group.  

And we were just getting started! More photos to come. 

Greece Part 2: Monasteries on pillars, the 300 Spartans, and the oracle at Delphi

Greece Part 3: Tourist town, Crete, and the Minoan Palace 

Greece Part 4: Athens, Santorini, and the fragility of civilizations 

Blue Angels flyby Cleveland Sept 2, 2024

Monarch Butterly Reserve in Michoacán

Monarch butterflies from Canada, the Great Lakes and eastern U.S. migrate some 3,000 miles south each fall to mountaintops in Michoacán, central Mexico, to hibernate. It´s considered one of the world´s great animal migrations.

We hiked from the village of El Rosario up to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, a cool fir and pine forest at about 10,000 feet. Until 1975, scientists who study the butterfly were unaware of this hibernation site. Now it´s supposedly protected, but it´s surrounded by villages of poor folks who are unemployed and need money. Logging is a source of income.

The Wall Street Journal just did an article on the efforts to protect the Reserve. The World Wildlife Fund chronicles activities to encourage preservation and recovery of forest illegally harvested in the reserve.

It´s estimated that some 100 million to 200 million monarchs winter here. This photo by Cindy shows how they huddle together on branches for warmth. The day we were there was sunny, so a few were moving around to get water. They live off fat reserves stored up during their migration to tide them over to February, when they become active again, and migrate north to Texas and Oklahoma where they mate and lay eggs.

In a kind of relay, the monarchs produce several generations as they migrate north, reproduce and die off. It is only the generation that hatches in late summer that migrates south and lives for eight or nine months. MonarchWatch.org has more information on the migration here.




This is part of the El Rosario community, which charges admission to the site and maintains the surrounding areas. They operate dozens of little souvenir and food stands along the route up to the reserve.

We stayed in Zitácuaro the night before going up to the reserve. It´s a very busy provincial town, not very attractive, but the hotel, the Maria Fernanda, was excellent and cheap.

And of course there is an article on Wikipedia.

Tlalpujahua, with mines of silver and gold
After visiting the reserve we stayed in Tlalpujahua, which bills itself as the Magic Pueblo, and it truly is a lovely small place with lots of interesting buildings.

The town´s wealth came from silver and gold mines, which explains how a little place like this could have such a magnificent church.





The town´s cobbled streets and well preserved colonial architecture captured Cindy´s eye.