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.