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. 

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

 

We hiked up to the monastery. 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 

 

 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 mountain 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, hopped on the bus and headed to Delphi. I attempted to be clever by capturing the statue of Leonidas, spear in hand, echoed unheroically by a maintenance worker, rake in hand. But the dark green backdrop behind the statue made it hard to appreciate the visual jest.

Mount Parnassus and the oracle of Apollo

The Delphi archeological site lies 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. 

The guide we hired at Delphi reminded us that the 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.

Possibly the world's oldest theater

So this site inspired other literary connections. 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 Nafpilo, a resort town for the well-to-do, and some tourists, for some relaxing days by the sea. 

 

 

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

 

This map shows the itinerary of our 15-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, recent and ancient. He bounded around, making sure the oldest of us could navigate some tricky hiking trails while the youngest could test their agility. 

Our fellow travelers made the trip most enjoyable. We had about 15 people most of the way, with mainly  older retirees like us but a few younger people to liven things up. The group claimed citizenship or roots in Australia, China, Canada, and the U.S.  

 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. We spent three weeks there in October, starting and finishing in Athens.

For Western society, Greece represented 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 during the Renaissance. Shakespeare's university-educated contemporaries all studied Greek. Brits began including Greece on their grand tours in the 1700s. Lord Byron was one of many who fought and died to liberate Greece from the Ottoman Empire.

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

On our first day, we were dazzled by the collections in the National Museum of Archeology. The bronze sculpture below 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 ca. 150-140 BCE off the coast of Cape Artemisia on the Greek island of Euboea."

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

(That's me at left, staring)

  

The sculpture was recovered, in pieces, from the sea floor, by underwater archeologists. It was restored and welded together. 

Horse-drawn chariots and cavalry in full charge are among the favorite subjects of Greek art. Which got me wondering: When did humans first domesticate horses? (This vase was in the vast new Acropolis Museum, Athens, which I highly recommend)

Domesticated horses: a technological revolution

And the answer surprised me: not that long ago. In fact, it touched off an explosion of innovation and trade when people first started riding horses and using them to help plow fields, wage war, or haul products to market. Turns out that horses weren't domesticated until about 4,000 years ago -- just about yesterday when you consider that agriculture became widespread about 10,000 years ago. 

Photo: 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.  

Art, literature, economics, politics

But I digress. 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 roughly 4,000 years ago. Other civilizations emerged almost simultaneously around the world as agriculture allowed people to gather in large settlements and organize complex societies.

This all happened around the time that 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 claim to give us freedom.

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