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Travels with Papillon

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	GREECE
	HELLAS

We have seen Chaos,

and it Works

A very early impression of Greece is that it is ALL chaos, ALL the time. The place is loud, busy, and a constant whirl of activity. Drivers obey their own rules and no one would consider queuing in a line when crashing is an option. When Greeks speak they ALL speak at once. We often wonder if anyone is listening.

But it works. Goods are in the stores, people get to where they need to be, and everyone appears to be healthy, happy and wise. And in so far as being kind and helpful to their visitors, I know of no nation more friendlier.

Dionysus - Mosaic, 150 AD, Corinth, Greece

* * * * *

Oracle

Zeus needed to know where the center of the earth was so he released two eagles from each end of the world. The eagles met over Delphi and thus Zeus declared the site the "Navel of the Earth" and placed the Earth Mother there and she established an Oracle on the site. Priestesses would answer the entreaties of the faithful with wisdom and unfailing accuracy, thus the reputation of the Oracle spread and this became the most scared of ground throughout Greece.

But Zeus had another problem of a most different sort. His son Apollo was a most rambunctious and unwieldy kid and Zeus had to threaten him to behave and often Zeus attempted to banish Apollo but his mother would not allow that. When Apollo received his first bow and arrows he set out to hunt down the Python that had threatened his mother. He found it near Delphi, trapped it in it's lair and killed him. The Earth Mother was livid that such a sacrilege could take place in such a scared spot and protested to Zeus. Apollo was required to atone and he sanctified a set of Games that soon came to rival the Olympic Games; these were known as the Pythian Games. And because Apollo grew to be a beloved Sun God a large temple was constructed there to honor him.

Delphi is very high and hard to get to. This is the Temple of Apollo.

With the combination of the foremost Apollon temple, the Games and the Oracle; Delphi became the premier site in all of Greece, equal to Olympus. Each City State established Treasuries there to insure that ample funds were available as "gifts" for the Oracle to insure favorable fortune. Common folk would purchase votives and figurines as gifts for the temple and the merchants and priests were very happy for the business. For nearly 1,000 years this was an important place, even after the Romans took over.

The Bronze Charioteer - 470's BC

It Was a Gas!

Seekers of the Oracle's answers were required to pay a fee and sacrifice an animal upon the altar. In return they were allowed to present their question to a priest who relayed it to the Oracle (a female Priestess over 50) who would give her often ambiguous answer to the priest who would interpret it and present it to the questioner.

The Priestess sat on a tripod stool over a crack in the earth and inhaled the vapors that arose from the ground.

A recent detailed geological study confirmed the obvious, as evidenced by the record of earthquakes in the area, that Delphi sat directly over a fault line. In all probability the Oracle was, in fact, inhaling sulfurous vapors from the earth and they gassed her higher than a Hootie Owl on a moonless night.

The Museum

A world class facility with some of the most important works of Art from the entire ancient world.

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Hosios Loukas

Holy Luke

The Monastery of Hosios Loukas, like most monasteries, is set out in the middle of nowhere. But the visitor is rewarded for his efforts in a most pleasant place set amongst the shade trees on the hillside within the bigger valley. The soft tones of the stonework, the floral highlights, and the fabulous Golden Mosaics make for a harmonious whole that makes a visit here most memorable.

Started in the 930's, Holy Luke, named after a healer that settled here and became a leader of devotees, it has been associated with Greek political causes throughout the centuries and could almost be considered a Battle Abbey. Severely damaged many times, it was even bombed by the Nazis.

But it is the Mosaics in the Katholikon (the main church) that draw the tourist here. The stark and severe Byzantine icons done to a formula style as dictated by Constantinople. But then Constantinople sent Artists of great passion and style to this remote place, and they executed the plan with a style and grace and a talent that leaves the modern visitor transfixed. Normally rigid and without life, the Masters here created life and movement and light with their little stones and this visitor was moved.

Turn Left at the No Left Turn Sign

To get to the Campground at Nea Kifisia, near Athens you must turn left at the No Left Turn sign. But not to worry, everyone else is making the turn also.

This photo from a bad angle shows the blue camping direction sign on the left, and on the right the red No Left Turn sign.

We sometimes stay in a downtown hotel in the larger cities. It makes touring somewhat easier.

Judy's First View

We entered Athens via the Metro subway and the Acropolis was hidden from view, thus we elected to take a taxi all the way up Lykavittos Hill in order to give Judy an overview of the town.

Here is her first look at the fabulous Parthenon.

As expected, Athens is a one of a kind.

From our hotel roof in Plaka, near downtown

Athens

Whatever you have read and whatever you have heard about Athens, believe it. Both the good and the bad. We loved the place.

Others can describe it far better than I can but our highlights are the Acropolis, the National Museum, the Agora Museum and dinner in the Plaka.

The sheer size of the Parthenon on the Acropolis is memorable. Just gigantic when viewed up close.

The National Museum is one of the World's Treasures. The most comprehensive collection in all of Greece concerning the art and artifacts of prehistoric through the Classical and Hellenistic ages to and including Roman Greece.

In depth collections of pottery, bronze and marble kept us interested for 6 hours and we did not see it all. In addition it has most of the Gold from Mycenae including the Death Mask of Agamemnon (which it is not).

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Epidaurus - it is what we are

It's our culture that sets us apart. We are drama, we are story, we are art, and we are builders. The ancient theater of Epidaurus is what separates us from the Barbarians. For they are not storytellers, poets, artists, nor dramatists on the world stage.

Begun in the 400's BC, this out of the way theater is the best preserved in all the world. The acoustics are perfect, in that one person standing at center stage does not have to raise their voice to be heard in the top row of seats.

Mycenae

The ruins were of a city so important that it gave its name to an entire civilization. From the 1700's BC until the 1100's BC, Mycenae and the affiliated towns dominated life and trade in southern and central Greece. And the writing and art and culture of this civilization became the bedrock of the future Greece and the Hellenic world beyond.

Glorified by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the city's King, Agamemnon, led the united Greek forces in the 10 years war against Troy. The trade networks of the town reached throughout the eastern and central Mediterranean coast, and products from northern Europe have been found as well. It was only after the destruction of their trading partners in the Levant by the mysterious Sea People did the civilization falter and decline into a Dark Age for 4 centuries.

Left, we see the Lion's rampant over the entrance to the city at the aptly named Lion Gate. From 1350 BC, this sculpture is one of the oldest Monumental sculptures in existence.

For the modern world, the study of the culture is possible because of the Grave Goods left with the departed. And fortunately for us, the discovery of the Royal Tombs in 1876 by the German Heinrich Schliemann allows us to see the Best of their art, most of which is on display in the Athens Museum.

Left: Grave Circle A, the Royal Tombs. Right: Royal tomb of the Tholos type.

* * * * * *

A young soldier in the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry of Sherman's Army wrote of the rapid march they made to reinforce directly the Army of the Cumberland after the Chickamauga disaster. Starting in Vicksburg they moved to Memphis and marched to Chattanooga in less than a month during the fall rains of 1863. He described the movement as

A Wearisome Tramp

The phrase came to mind during our visit to Mystras

Set in a most spectacular mountain setting, Mystras was somewhat a disappointment for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is that it is ALL vertical - and on very bad walk ways. Secondly, there is not a lot left to see of any real artistic importance.

During the 1200's through to the Ottoman conquest in 1453 Mystras was a Byzantine Administrative center (the Despotate of Morea) as well as a center of enlightened Orthodox theological thought. Left to ruin, it has recently been added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sights. It needs a little bit more work to reach its potential.

It is a long

road to

Monemvasia

But a journey well taken. This is the Gibraltar of Greece. A bastion of strength during the War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. A lower walled city surmounted by the Upper City fortress a thousand feet above, this town held thousands of residents in the 1400's. Based on trade and occasional piracy the town prospered and remained virtually independent throughout history. In the process of being restored, it will become over touristed within a few years, but it is a delight now.

u c p l m b

It's not the end of the earth...

But you can see it from there.

In the extreme south of the Peloponnese, in the area known as the Mani, lies the end of the earth - or at least the southern most point of the continent of Europe. And at the end of the pavement, right, there begins a foot path that passes over the hill above the middle RV and continues on to the lighthouse at Cape Tainario.

In the morning sunlight we see 3 RV'ers who "free camped" the night away. American, German and Dutch on Greek soil near the Temple to Poseidon.

We have become Idlers

7:30 PM, Wednesday May 30, Pylos, Greece - We sat looking at this view for over an hour

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