Our search for Thucydides like any undertaking in antiquity began at the oracle of Delphi.
Despite an unusually rainy March day in Attica (the region around Athens), as ancient travelers we followed the Holy Road (Iera Odos) out of Athens through Boeotia, and the old city state of Thebes and climbed Mount Parnassos to visit the oracle of Apollo, God of Sun, Music and the Arts. (The sun did come through the clouds during our visit) We visited the old temples and treasuries, the ancient theater and stadium. Our guide Irene like a modern-day pythia (oracle) guided us through the maze of remarkable structures that have withstood earthquakes, fire, invasion and greed as a reminder of a past whose ideals have guided contemporary athletic and political concepts.
The oracle thinks we are on the right path to find Thucydides, as she pointed us to the cemetery of Keramikos, the Athenian Agora and Parthenon, where Pericles the great Athenian of the 5th century created the democratic prototype of the democratic and sovereign state. Tomorrow, which is "Clean Monday" in Greece as the beginning of lent is marked in Greece we will follow the advise of the Oracle and visit the Parthenon and Keramikos cemetery.
The landscape at Delphi was breathtaking, it is not hard to see why the ancient Greeks came together at this spot to listen to the oracle and, more importantly, cooperate in the pan-Hellenic spirit. It is apparent that there was a healthy amount of social capital present in this society where the fortunes of the various city-states were collectively amassed without fear of theft or corruption.
ReplyDeleteWe arrived in Athens yesterday. It was a very long day, and by long day I mean a 32-hour time from when I woke up in Boston to when I went to sleep in Athens. We got on the flight and it was a humungous plane, may be the biggest one I have ever been on. It had 3 rows of seats and the middle row had 4 seats. The flight would have been just fine with the weather conditions and the take off and landing and all that, if it weren’t for the other factors that made it, well, awful. There was a woman sitting in the seat behind me who was throwing up the last 4 hours of the flight, which made me want to vomit as well. And on top of that, there was a person who was throwing up right when we took off sitting across from me. So, this made the flight very hard to fall asleep on, which meant that I was awake for the entire 8 hours of the first flight.
ReplyDeleteIt did have some perks though, through all the vomit:
-We got to watch the sunrise out of my window (yes I had a window seat that I switched with someone for) and the sunrise was when we were flying over France!!! Cool, eh?
-Once the sun was out we flew over the Alps and those were just amazing to watch. I can’t remember the last time that I saw mountains look like that. Probably never in person, actually. I took probably 10 pictures of them out the plane window.
-We got to land in Rome for an hour layover. We also got to go outside to go to the second flight, and even though it was raining, we were in Italian rain.
-Lastly, the food was not bad at all. We got a free dinner and a free breakfast. AND the wine was free. I got 2 glasses.
The second flight from Rome – Athens was really quick and the view was so cool, even though I was already exhausted. When we took off from the Rome airport, we flew over the river and over a harbor. I took a few pictures of that too. Oh, and also at our layover, I got an espresso. Now I can say that I’ve had Italian coffee in Italy!
We arrived in Athens, completely exhausted. I was gross from being on a plane for about 11 hours in total for both flights. We stopped at the state house I believe, it wasn’t called the state house, but you get the idea. Then we went to the hotel where I showered (which was an experience in itself with the tiny glass door and the removable shower head), amazing, and went on the Internet for the first time since being here. I wanted to sleep, but there is no alarm clock in our rooms nor do I have my phone, so I had no way to set an alarm before we went anywhere. So, unfortunately I stayed awake and let my roommate sleep.
We then all met up and all looked like death. Everyone was so exhausted and you can just tell that some of us felt sick we were so tired. We then took the metro a few stops and got off at a popular street to walk to the Acropolis and Acropolis museum. It was beautiful, and so damn old. (It was built several hundred years before Christ was born.) At the museum, I thought that the tour guide was going to yell at us for showing no enthusiasm for what we were looking at. Sorry lady, but we were pushing 30 hours of no sleep at that point.
ReplyDeleteWe then went to dinner. Greek food is amazing. I love everything so far. I took several pictures of the food because I could not believe at how much I was enjoying myself. Their feta cheese is completely different tasting than the stuff in the US. It is moist and full of so much flavor and not drenched in Greek dressing like I’m used to. My sister would die for this cheese. Their idea of a Greek salad is tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, feta, olive oil and olives of course. Way better than any Greek salad in the US, trust me.
After dinner we took a bus back to the hotel. At this point, it felt like I had been in Greece for a week already because of how long this day was. To give you an idea, I woke up at 8:30/9:00am EST on 5/4 and went to sleep at 10:30pm Athens time on 5/5, but Greece is 7 hours ahead. I was awake for 32 hours yesterday, longer than an actual day.
Sleep was great. What I needed more than anything at that point. This morning I woke up feeling amazing and ready to appreciate being here. We got a wake up call at 6:00am and then went down for breakfast around 7:15. Breakfast was so good. I actually did not take a picture of breakfast, unfortunately. Everything was so fresh, even though it was hotel food. I had a bunch of coffee, black, and loved it. It was raining slightly but we were getting on a bus a little after 8 to drive 3 hours to Delphi. We stopped about half way there to get more coffee and move around. I bought my boyfriend a present there at the shop and sat outside with everyone.
Delphi is so amazingly beautiful. The ride up there was a little intense though. The road was very windy and on the edge of a cliff as we were climbing a mountain almost the entire time. I started to feel kind of nauseous so I closed my eyes for the last part of the drive. I could not stop taking pictures. I am obsessed with the mountains and the grass and the wild flowers that were all in bloom. The sun came out of the clouds when we got there too. We saw the ancient oracle, track where games and athletic competitions were held every 4 years (similar to the Olympics), and plenty of ruins. We then took a tour of the small museum and then headed back where all of us slept.
Once we got used to how high in the mountains we were it was a really great view. It showed just how dedicated Ancient Greece was to doing things according to tradition. It took a lot of time to present a question to the oracle and sometimes they did not get a chance to ask it but it did not stop people from trying.
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