Mycenae

Next we toured Mycenae, the great hill-top capital of the Mycenaen world. More defensive architecture, monumental stone work, but a written language (linear B), and all the gods, heroes, and other figures of early western civilization...

Mycenae, set on a hill-top in the mountains, but just a few miles from the sea

The Lions' Gate



Closer-up

Alas, we walked around mostly in squalls, but there was a  nice rainbow in the 
distance 

Grave Circle A; when Schliemann dug his first hole at Mycenae, he hit here, 
a grave complex that yielded about 30 pounds of gold, including what 
Schliemann fancifully dubbed "Agamemnon's death mask"; he was about 
three centuries off, however

Descending, boldly, the ninety steps down to the cistern

Half-way down, rusted-out braces...not very

reassuring

The bottom

Another massive gate

Palace area near the top

Entrance to Clytemnestra's Tholos (very similar to Treasury of Atreus in 
structure and dimensions)

A last look at the great complex

Treasury of Atreus

From Tiryns we drove the few miles on to ancient Mycenae, parking for the night at the Treasury of Atreus, a tholos (round) tomb, a tumulus, sort of, but with a monumental beehive stone structure beneath. We toured it the next morning, and then did Mycenae, a few hundred yards up the hill, and its museum. All this is Bronze Age, 16th-12th centuries BC, the stuff of Homer. Well, the stuff Homer wrote about, centuries later. Mycenae was Agamemnon's home town. Also Clytemnestra's, et al. And Pelops, too.

Entrance to the Treasury of Atreus, also called, fancifully, Agamemnon's Tomb; 
again, the stones are huge although more finely dressed at Mycenae

Inside the beehive; nothing was found here nor in other tholos tombs in the area; 
they are fairly conspicuous and have been used by shepherds and others for aeons...
just as soon as the Mycenean world collapsed in the 12th century BC, I speculate

The enormous doorway

Vicki poses for scale; the tomb is immense

As do I, by the doorway; the lintel measures 28x23x5 feet, 
130 tons; Cylcopean indeed; the triangular space above it 
is characteristically Mycenean, devised to reduce the weight 
the lintel carries

Wall-Girt Tiryns

...as Homer called it, is a 13th century BC Mycenean fortress a few miles from Nafplio. It is about the size of a standard Edward castle in Wales and is, similarly, a largely defensive undertaking: high walls, gates that, if breached, lead into killing-fields, cisterns accessible only from within, and all the rest. The medieval military architects had nothing on the Myceneans, 2500 years earlier. The most impressive thing about Tiryns, I thought, was the sheer size of the stones employed in its building. The classical Greeks attributed the building of these Mycenean structures to the Cyclopes, a race of giants, hence their description as Cyclopean. Anyhow, I was pretty impressed.

Ramp leading to main gate

Along the ramp; these stones are mostly 8x4x4 feet or so, very roughly cut

Palace area at the top of the fortress

Passage-way within the walls

Toward another gate, more monumental stone-work

Another view

View of walls from sea-side

Length of the sea-side wall; the whole fortress is about 1500 meters around

Nafplio

Our route to ancient Mycenae took us through the beautiful coastal city of Nafplio, where we stopped for lunch and some strolling and shopping in its old town. Nafplio has little of classical or pre-classical interest, but is within site of Argos, Tiryns, and Mycenae; and it is an ambience-laden little place well worth a stop, or longer.

Fortress over-looking Nafplio

Even more scenic little fortress out in the harbor



Beautiful old building on the square; when Greece won its 
independence from the Ottomans in the 1820s, Nafplio was 
its first capital

Alley way

So far as we could tell, Nafplio is the worry-bead capital of Greece; the amber 
ones are very attractive

Amber's House of Amber, where Vicki stimulated the local 
economy

Nafplio's square

Back on the road, past modern Greece, classical Greece, the dark ages that 
followed the Bronze Age, and into the world of the Myceneans, the stuff of 
Homer; here, a Mycenaen bridge out in the countryside

Epidauros

Epidauros is best known for its theatre, but it was actually the oldest and perhaps largest of ancient Greece's Asclepeions: healing centers. Asclepeios, the god of healing, was the son of Apollo and was born at Epidauros. We saw many such healing centers of Greek origin in Turkey.

The theatre in Epidauros, reputedly the best in the Greek

world; which must mean Greece, because we saw half a

dozen better in Turkey

Vicki checks out the front-row seat-backs

And the acoustics, which were remarkable (we had
the place to ourselves, as we often do, camping on

site the night before, getting an early start, way ahead of the

tour buses)

Surgical instruments in the museum

Offering in thanks for healing deafness (original in Athens)



Main hall of the museum

Statue of Asclepios; note the snake thing;
the Hippocratic oath is addressed to Apollo
and Asclepeios

Out on the grounds, near the ruins of the baths, where we

had camped

More of the grounds; such healing centers included baths,

gymnasium, temples, theatre, lodgings for priests and
patients...

Even a stadium

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese dangles by a thread to the mainland of Greece, yet it is the site of much of the greatest history and mythology. We drove along the south coast of Attica, crossed the isthmus over to the Land of Pelops, and then drove mostly the coast along its east side to the complex of Epidavros, its healing center and theatre.

Looking back toward Attica; we stopped in a small resort

town for a cafe that had wifi and finally got our European

maps re-installed to the satnav; that was scary!

The Corinth Canal bisects the isthmus; begun by the

Romans, it would have been one of their most monumental

achievements; finished by modern-day Greeks; postcards

usually show a cruise ship being towed through it

Marine farming on the north side of the

Peloponnese

Islands in the Aegean

Marathon: the Race

The marathon race is a modern invention, dating to the 1890s, the first being run from, you guessed it, Marathon, to Athens. It subsequently became part of the modern Olympics, and much, much more.

At the Marathon stadium, kilometer marker 40, the

beginning of the modern-day Marathon/Athens marathon
race

Commemorative mosaic thing

The official starting line

Me, demonstrating proper starting form

Signage on the km marker

Outside the Center for the Promotion of the

Marathon Race; last year was the 2500th

anniversary of the run--alas, like everything

else in Marathon, it was closed

We followed the km markers for the Athens Classic

Marathon Course some distance into Athens, but then,

after provisioning at the Carrefours, had to take the toll-way;

never did find the finish line...

Marathon: the Battle

We spent Wednesday morning getting the Grey Wanderer ship shape and Bristol fashion, and, after the missing luggage arrived after lunch, we boldly set forth for Marathon. More boldly than usual in that, when we loaded the USA maps onto our satnav, we inadvertently erased our European maps. Accordingly we also boldly set forth to find a McDonald's or some other wifi source. Anyhow, we spent some time in the winter necropolis of Marathon, looking for a suitable souvenir for my sister Carole, the marathon runner. Five hardware stores were open, a couple kiosks and the like, but the place was really dead. We took in the Athens Marathon sites in town, then headed out to see the Marathon Battle Trophy and the Tumulus of fallen Athenians.

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, when an estimated 20,000 Persians landed, intent on punishing the Athenians for supporting the revolts at Miletus and elsewhere in Asia Minor. It was the Greeks' first Persian War. The two armies glowered at each other for six days, then, spotting a weakness, the 10,000 Athenians attacked the disorganized Persians and routed them. According to Herodotus (we read), 6,400 Persians were killed to 192 Athenians. The rest of the Persians sailed back home. Miltiades, the Greek commander, sent a runner back to Athens to convey the news--thus our modern marathon race--40 km. Unfortunately, he died of exhaustion. Apparently no one even got his name. Some kind of immortality!

Pretty good signage

Reconstructed battle trophy; the site, mentioned by both Plato 
and Aristophanes, was found by an American archaeologist



The Tumulus, on the plain of Marathon, with a mountain back-drop

The Persians no doubt regarded all this as a reconnaissance in force. They came back a few years later with perhaps the largest army assembled in antiquity, sacked and burned Athens and much of the rest of Greece, but finally had to give up and go away after setbacks at sea and on the land. War is as much about communication and supply as about battles.

Anyhow, we camped at the parking lot by the Tumulus; another night of jet-lag adjustment. And still no wifi nor TomTom.