Thursday, March 10, 2011

This is Sparta!

I couldn't resist the title of this entry, as we have made it to the town of Sparti (Σπαρτη). This town in the plateau of Tayetos mountains was in antiquity the opposing pole of power to democratic and seafaring Athens. This was the classical geopolitical confrontation between land- versus naval-power. The rugged land-locked terrain of Sparta forged a distinct social, political, and economic structure. The ambition of Athens was matched with the practical conservatism of Sparta. These two socio-political systems represented by the two city-states of antiquity could not avoid the centrifugal forces of competition and envy which resulted in a devastating and mutually suicidal war.

7 comments:

  1. It is also worth noting that tonight...we dined...in a nice little place. --and danced to traditional music played by the best talent Sparta had to offer. OPA!

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  2. Sparta was so much more beautiful than I imagined it, especially after watching that (ahem) documentary on Leonidas in the bus on the way there. We climbed to the acropolis just as the weather changed to shorts weather and the sun came out like it does in Boston in late April. It was our tour guide's birthday so at dinner she taught some of us (including me) how to dance the Greek way. Mr. George even did a solo, which will probably end up on the internet in the next few days. I would go back to this country town for the mountains and the history again, definitely.

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  3. What an absolute difference from Athens. Visiting Athens, or even place like Olympia,  is similar to hopping in a time machine and following the footsteps of the most famous Greeks. But Sparta gets overlooked because modern day Sparta is substantially short of reminiscing ancient feats. This lack of preservation, to me, is ironic because Sparta, as an ancient city state, was incredibly successful, and the eventual victor of the Pelopponesian war. Sparta's ruins were completely built over, creating a new place of chic modernity, full of students and lots of life. However, although modern Sparta was very central to our age group, I think the highlights were the antiquity; the Temple of Artemis may have been in bad condition but it really exemplified the brutality yet sufficient of how young Spartan warriors were initiated. The acropolis was surprisingly beautiful despite the fact that Their awesome structures, however, seemed to be practical more than extravagant, like the Athenian structures. There was a track and field in the town center, used for a race called the Spartathalon (which I got the pleasure to run on; double points as an avid runner); the statue in front of Leonidas was somehow very inspiring, especially when translated to Greek: "come and get it". What a great inspiration for warriors (and runners!). This must be Sparta. 

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  4. Though very different than Athens, visiting Sparta was a great experience! Sparta is rugged with a lot of mountains, which makes it easy to understand where the rigid characteristics of ancient Spartans come from. After arriving in Sparta, we visited the Acropolis, which is nothing like that of Athens. It was interesting to witness how the Athenians built amazing temples and statues that we see today where the Spartans focused on building a rugged and strong army.
    After sightseeing, we ate lunch and then did a little shopping in Sparta. Later on in th evening we took our tour guide, Irene, out for her birthday. This was truly a great night filled with a great dinner accompanied with some quality greek music as well as some dancing.

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  5. Today we went to Sparta coming from the ocean. Surrounding Sparta were mountains all topped with ice. It was quite the contrast for just being a few hours away. Here we met up with the locals where Professor Vamvakas showed us some new dance moves. Irene, our guide also made some good friends with the entertainment as we all learned some Greek dances.
    The sculpture above is of King Leonidas leading his 300 to defeat the Persians.

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  6. I found it ironic that the main surviving piece of ancient sparta was the theater at the acropolis, because spartans didn't take part in the arts the way the athenians did. they used their theater for more things such as meetings and assemblies, not the arts. It was a great place to see the rest of sparta, with great views of the city and the mountains. The modern town of sparta really spoke to our age group, with tons of students our age and popular hangout spots. we celebrated Irene's birthday and learned some greek dances, and got a taste of culture. it was a fun place to be and we also saw some great pieces of history. the statue of leonidas stands right at the end of the main street, reading the message of a true spartan, "come and get it." The geography of Sparta is very landlocked in a valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains which I imagine are rocky in the summer. It became clear why Sparta was such a different culture than Athens, though they are only a few hours away.

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  7. The type of land was so different from the other landscapes we haadd seen. It was so pretty, there were snow covered mountains everywhere. Learning about the Spartan traditions for boys coming of age by being flogged really accented the differences between Sparta and the rest of Greece. Sparta was all about protecting the land where other areas of Greece also valued aspects of life such as theater.
    It was a really cool place to spend the night and we had a fun night with our tour guide who was celebrating her birthday that day.

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