Woke up this morning, opened the door to a perturbed Stacie, who looked like she was going to kill somebody. Per the previous blog post, Ruth, her roommate had slipped and fell shaving her legs while in the bathroom and cracked her head wide open. Rentar (a health teacher) took a quick look at the scalp and said stitches might be an afterthought as the wound had taken place over 4 hours ago, which is usually the limit for stiches. Ruth’s bleeding had come under control, but everyone agreed she needed to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. This meant that Theo & Stacie, the group leader had to accompany Ruth back to Nafpilo, while the rest of the group continued on with the tour.
Meer and I got our kids on the bus, and we continued towards the outdoor theater of Epidaurus As Theo wasn’t with us, I hopped up and read my tour book on what we were about to see, and told my Irish joke buying us time until we picked up today’s tour director, who was the best of the trip. She understood our situation, and took over Theo’s role of getting everyone off the bus, paid our tickets, herded us up the hill to the outdoor theater.
This outdoor theater of Epidaurus is one of the largest of the ancient world. Originally built in the 4th century BC by the Greeks, the upper layer was added on by the Romans. Our guide explained to us that there was a massive earthquake in 400 AD that would later cover the hillside, and thus preserving it until uncovered in 1881. It can seat somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000+ and is still in use to this day. In fact the week after we leave, there is a massive Greek play festival, which shows only at night.
Another really cool thing about this place is the acoustics. Having been built 100 years after the Athens Parthenon, the Greeks knew how to use the Golden Ratio or Phi 1.618 , to create double parabolic design using two arcs that run the length and width of the Theater. These arcs intersect at the Golden mean at the center of the theater giving it unreal acoustic enhancements. This mathematical genius causes a prefect augmentation of sound to reflect, so that a person can drop a coin or sing a song and be heard from anywhere all over the seating area. A few kids volunteered to sing. Rhett sang Desperado (Eagles) followed by a trio who sang Amazing Grace, and finally Erica Hillwig and Lori Beck sang some selections from Phantom of the Opera. I was in the top row and heard them perfectly.
Here are some more shots of the theater which was pretty damn impressive.
~ Other notes:
~Tons of bees everywhere, in fact they became to really be a problem for some of the kids who purchased Coke or sweet drinks. Nobody got stung though.
~ The seats of the theater were made of Limestone, which looks like marble, but acoustically deadens crowd noise and low tones, as proved by a 2007 study done here by the University of Georgia. It conversely augments high pitches, such as the voices of the speakers which just goes to show the ancients knew what they were doing.
~the Outside retaining wall collapsed after the earth quake and was rebuilt to give the theater its original shape.
~Some of the benches are cracked or broken, which shows where tumbling debris from the earthquake dinged up the theater. (seen right) Other spots were completely replaced where the landslide may have caused too much damage.
On our way, we passed one of the oldest bridges in all of Greece, on the road back to town. The internet says the name of it is
Ponte miceneo- per Evangelos Gazis? It was taken outside the town of Aghios loannis on the road to Epidaraus.
After the Theater, we headed back to town to pick up Ruth, Stacie, and Theo. Ruth was now sporting a white fishnet stocking on her dome, and was under some heavy antibiotics. The Doctor ordered Ruth to take it easy and not to do anything physical for the next few days, which Ruth would later ignore. (More on that later)
Our bus stopped at one of the better restaurants in the area, according to our tour guide. Food was really good, as I had Beef stew and potatoes. One of the girls from Texas who was a trained nurse had to give Ruth her shot after lunch. Stacie was pretty upset about having to miss Epidaurus, and of course Meer didn’t hesitate to rub it in that it was his favorite part of the whole trip. (Which it wasn’t, but that was the running joke for the day.) In reality, the whole Ruth injury thing could have been a lot worse.
Our 2nd stop after lunch was the ruins of Mycenae. Made famous by Homer’s Iliad, we pulled the bus over at King Agamemnon’s tomb, also known as the Treasury of Artreus, which is a massive burial mound with a vaulted ceiling known to the Greeks as a Tholos. Quite impressive actually, as the size of the stones and mound were rather huge. That said, it was not as impressive as New Grange(in Ireland) which is twice as old and many times larger, but of course I’m biased towards my Celtic ancestors. Still, these ruins pre-dated “Classical” Greece, so we are talking 1600 BC or so which is considered the early Bronze Age.
One famous site at Mycenae is the Lion’s Gate, which is considered one of the earliest European carvings in all of antiquity. Some believe this a religious symbolism of having a pillar in-between two feuding lions. The supposed symbollogy of the column (represents civilization) is keeping the Lions from tearing each other apart.
In 1874 amateur scholar/playboy Henrich Schliemann dug up the ruins at Mycenae and found various graves, skeletons, and funeral masks, which he (wrongly) attributed to Agamemnon. Of course the newspapers of the day over played this, which gave him even more fame and fortune. Unfortunately much of what he uncovered was not cared for properly and when some of it hit the open air, it didn’t last more than a few days.
No one is really sure what happened that Mycenae fell. Historians point to the arrival of the Dorians from the north as playing a role, while others blame the “sea people” who took down the Hittites and Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Nobody is really sure, but the place was destroyed in the ancient days and not by the Christians for a change. Of course Homer used this as the setting for Achilles being summoned by Agamemnon to fight against the Trojans to rescue his sister-in-law, Helen of Troy.
Whatever is fact or fiction, the view of Mycenae is simply staggering. Surrounded by a sea of Olive trees, it can easily be seen as to why this was a perfect place for a fortress, as you can see the ocean from the ruin’s heights.
Once done, we hopped a 3 hr bus ride to Athens, then sat in Athens traffic for an extra hour. On the way I would have liked to have stopped for 5 minutes to get out and view the Corinth Canal, but Theo missed the call and we were practically over it before he was able to look out the window and alert us to the fact that we had already crossed over it. Nobody was able to get out their cameras I don’t think, although it was listed on our itinerary to stop. I guess we just didn’t have the time? Later on my flight back to the States, our plane went high above it, so I’m throwing in this picture to show that I did in fact get to see the Corinth canal.
Took the bus to the Plaka district in downtown Athens, which is just below the Acropolis. Really cool atmosphere, lots of cool shops, souvenir type shops, and even got a few night shots of the Acropolis, but none of them turned out as you almost need to use a tripod when taking night shots. Grabbed another Yiro (Gyro) which they wanted 7.50 for sit-down, or 1.50 for take out, so we got them and sat on the curb instead. (no brainer)
Went back to the hotel, and hung out for a while before crashing for the night.
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