Let’s Talk About Greece

To recap a little, Athens is one of the world’s most visited cities.  It is a very special spot.  People have lived in this area for thousands of years before Christ, but the city of Athens as it is today, is relatively new.  Until modern times, even as late as the early 70’s, Athens was a small city.  There are no medieval churches, no castles, and no Roman bridges.  It is quite large today.  The leap from a city of concrete block buildings at the city level to the magnificent Acropolis overhead with its awesome stone and marble temples is an unimaginable gap.  Just trying to get your arms around the site and imagining the people who built these temples with the great gate atop the Acropolis is hard for the mind to grasp.  Even though they worshiped mythical gods, the hands, the heart, and the backbone of these people were real.  They lived, they worked, and they loved, just as we do.  This thought brings to mind a staggering reality written about and sung by old-fashioned Bluegrass singer, Jean Dowell.  She sings, “Short Time Here; Long Time Gone.”

From Athens, we took a day boat trip to the beautiful rocky island of Hydra. Its clear waters are inviting for a swim even this late in the season. It is a popular secluded destination for rock stars and movie stars who probably arrive most often by yacht but the town is also known for its iconic donkeys. Because the town is built on the side of a mountain, donkeys carry people and goods up the hill. No personal vehicles are allowed on the island. It is very nice.

Later we closed our Athens visit by taking a four-day road trip on a bus with about 25 other people from all parts of the world – we got to know quite a few!  During these four days, we were immersed in Greek mythology, history, and archeological sites.  We saw the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia and walked the field there where the original Olympic Games took place every four years beginning in 776 BC and continued until about 393AD when Greece came under Roman rule.  The grounds included athletic training areas, a stadium, and temples dedicated to Hera and Zeus.  The games were not to show off physical acumen and strength for sport’s sake, instead, the games were conducted to honor and worship the gods with sportsmanship.  They were cultural and religious festivals.  It is often noticed that statues of athletes and gods from Greek mythology were sculpted sans clothing.  The large cloth wraps and sandals were not conducive to sports activities; men could not run, jump, ride, or fight wrapped in robes so athletes competed naked.  Only men could compete in the Olympic games; no women.  In fact, women were not allowed to attend an Olympic event, even if a son was in the competition. 

It is on this site where even today heat from the sun on a mirror ignites the Olympic torch.  That flaming torch is carried by relay from Olympia to the site of the next Olympic host city. There in the opening ceremony of the games, the caldron is lighted during the opening ceremonies and continues for the duration of the Games, until it is extinguished during the closing ceremonies. 

We were there.  What a feeling!

En route to Mycenae, we crossed the bridge over the narrow canal near the ancient Biblical town of Corinth, which now makes the southwestern portion of Greece an island.  Mycenaean civilization existed from about 1750 to 1050 BC before Christ.  Ruins of the city and its monumental Lions Gate look over the great valley below.  The Mycenaeans are thought to have been the first to develop the Greek religion.  They were known as an advanced society, warriorlike, but also great engineers and tradesmen.  Their script, Linear B, is thought to be the first written record of the Greek language.

At Epidaurus, we hiked to the amazing Theatre of Epidaurus which was a religious center dedicated to the god of healing.  The acoustics are so perfect in this outdoor seating arena that a person can speak while standing in the center and be heard in every seat.

In about the 8^th century BC, people believed Zeus named Delphi the center of the world.    There is an egg-shaped monument in the Delphi Archaeological Museum that marked the spot.  Apollo, Zeus’ son and the god of light, poetry, and music, was honored in Delphi with a Temple to Apollo where pilgrims came to make sacrifices of calf or goat.  It was pointed out that the gods did not relish the burned animal flesh; it was the smoke they treasured.  The most remarkable site at Delphi is the arena used for religious festivities and games honoring the gods.  We toured the Archaeological Museum to see the Center of the Earth stone and to find the Sphinx of Naxos among a tremendous collection of other saved relics.

We heard enough Greek mythology and saw enough ancient ruins to cause us a complete overload.  We are saying to ourselves, no more mythology and no more ruins!!  I remember that I did not enjoy Greek or Roman mythology in school.  My mind operates in such a logical manner that I just could not buy the stories, especially like one in which Zeus, the king of the gods on Mt. Olympus, ate his first wife because he thought she was pregnant with a girl.  That child did not die. Instead, Athena, Athen’s namesake, was born from Zeus’ head.  Sheesh!    For us, we have had enough, and cannot get ourselves worked up to hear any more mythology nor visit any more ruins!

The highlight of this four-day bus ride was two monasteries.  Not just any monastery.  In the Meteora region near Kalambaka, the landscape is stupendous!  Millions of years ago this area was under water in a very deep lake.  But at some point, movement of tectonic plates caused the seabed to rise.  Time and the erosion of soft stones and soil left stone formations that stand as almost inaccessible, immense natural stone pillars, 1300 to 1500 feet high off the Plain of Thessaly valley floor.  The first sight merely knocks your socks off, it is magical and breathtakingly beautiful.  The landforms are miraculous!  Atop these lofty pillars, beginning in the early 12th century Greek Orthodox monks slowly built six monasteries, piece by piece, stone by stone.  Over the centuries, these holy places have been meticulously maintained and expanded.  Some are reachable only on foot and 200 steps; some are by rope access only.  They all had rudimentary elevators for bringing supplies and building materials to the top.  We visited two of the more readily accessible ones, the mystical Holy Trinity Monastery perched perilously on a steep pillar-like rock and the Monastery of St. Stephen which was converted to a nunnery in 1961.  Even today when I look at our photos of these lofty places I am amazed and awed at the sights.

Oh, the miracles on this earth.