Visiting the Ancient Archeological Sites Pidaurus and Mycenae
Wednesday, December 29
Carol here: Today we head west to the Peloponnese on our way to Mycenae, another ancient capital of Greece. We pass over the Corinth Canal – a VERY thin gorge dug so boats don’t have to go around the land mass. Then it’s on to Epidaurus to visit the Sanctuary of Aesclepius and the Theater there. Aesclepius was a god (son of Apollo) who was known for healing (this is before Hippocrates actually started studying the human body)! People with health problems would go to one of his temples/sanctuaries, present offerings, hang out for a week or so, and then go to sleep in a special room and receive healing in their dreams. Side note: Two of Aesclepius’ daughters were Hygieia (“Hygiene”) and Panacea (“Universal Remedy”).
The theater here is almost acoustically perfect. JB & Matthew stood at the center of the stage and spoke in normal voices. I could hear perfectly all the way high up in the stands. The theater seats 14,000 (then and now – they still do performances here!) and supposedly owes its excellent sound transmission to the limestone seats. Although Matthew says it’s because the theater is dug into the hillside and is in the shape of 3 arches, making a container of more than 180 degrees. Whatever the reason, it’s remarkable!
There is a small museum here with statues, friezes, etc from the site. There is an interesting foundation under a circular part of the temple that may or may not be a labyrinth. See the picture. This museum also had some interesting examples of statues with interchangeable heads. At some point, instead of making a whole statue of Joe the King with Joe’s specific body, they started carving more generic statues wearing a robes or gowns – but with no head. And then, if you did something special, they’d do a carving of your head and put it on one of those statues. When the next guy got elected, they’d take off your head and replace it with his head. This is much more efficient that doing an entirely new status, you have to admit!
JB taking over now: After a short stop at Nafplia (another old capital) with a short walk along narrow streets, we head for Mycenae. Along with the Acropolis and Delphi, Mycenae is one of the top 3 most visited tourist sites in Greece. In 1400 BC Mycenae controlled much of mainland Greece, Crete and many Aegean islands. According to myth, and to an extent history – let me stop and say sometimes they seem to get confused – King Agamemnon led the Greeks from Mycenae to Troy in the Trojan War in 1250 BC. The Greeks fought for 10 years to reclaim fair Helen, the wife of Agamemnon’s brother Menelaus from the Trojan prince Paris. There really was a war but it was more likely for economic reason over the Bosporous Strait, the Dardanelles. The site was discovered and excavated in 1874.
The site has been inhabited since 3000 BC. It is on a plateau in the middle of two mountains, surrounded for the most part by valleys, forming a natural citadel that is easy to defend. You enter the site through the ancient Lion Gateway, symbolizing the citadel’s strength. There are various run down graveyards to the side, including one area called the Grave Circle, where over 30 pounds of gold were discovered in the underground tomb. Further out there are remains of ancient small villages. By village I mean where perhaps a few thousand lived. Towns and cities were small in comparison to ours now.
Leaving the site, we visited the nearby Treasury of Atreus, also called the Tomb of Agamemnon, because as one of the largest tombs of its type, shaped like a bee-hive, it may likely have been the tomb of the powerful Mycenean king. It is remarkable – I have never seen one like it. To build the tomb, successive layers of earth must have been put on top of each other, supporting the courses of stones as they mounted in the shape of a gigantic hive, perhaps 60 feet tall inside. The stones are 2×3 feet on the end by about 6 feet deep, truly monstrous, and the lentil in the entryway weighs 100 tons.
On the way back from Mycenae, we stopped at the ceramic shop of George, a friend of Matthew’s, and got a tour of his small pottery factory. We later saw his goods in a couple shops in the Plaka.
Speaking of the Plaka, which is the main part of the old city, and what comprised the main part of the city up until the 1950’s, we headed there at about 7 in a taxi.