Easter, Mycenae and Corinth

Easter Sunday, April 15: Celebrating Easter

Slept in without need for an alarm to wake up. When I did awake I opened the French doors to the balcony and could hear happy Greek voices and smell wood smoke. Lazed in bed for another hour, then went down for breakfast.

They were roasting whole spring lambs on spits out on the patio. Usually they do this on the beach, but the weather included rain, lots of wind, and was a bit cold. I took a couple of turns on the spit, but Vagilis kept sending someone to "rescue" me from not-very-hard labor. We all drank wine, talked, ate little tidbits fresh off the grill (some were liver, some I'd probably rather not know). Lots of Greek relatives and friends (as well as non-Greek friends) dropped by. We had the lamb, Greek salad, bread and yoghurt, potatoes, plus lots of wine and beer. Several musicians wandered by to play a few tunes on guitar, oboe and accordion. The women got up and did a line dance--I even joined in for a step or two, inept though I am at all forms of dance.

Our guide Sophia spirited 4 of us off to pick-up her daughter, who was at Sophia's parents house. When we got there the neighbors were still sitting at their dinner table under a carport sort of thing, and, seeing us, immediately invited us to join them. We explained we had already eaten and thanked them, then went to get Sophia's daughter. Her parents spoke very little English, but were happy to show us around and feed us sweets. When I admired some flowers Sophia's father said they were called "Semper viva" and came from the island of Kepheros, that they would always stay the same, without need for water, and then he gave each of us a sprig of the flowers.

We then all piled back into the car and returned to the hotel. A few us walked with Sophia and her daughter back into Tolo to visit her favorite cafe, where we also met her husband Bobis, who is a ship captain in the merchant marine. The owner of the cafe announced it was his name day, and gave us all a sweet (which was quite good). Friends of Sophia's kept dropping by and our group kept expanding. I finally walked back to the hotel so Sophia could visit with her friends.

We had dinner at the hotel that night, and afterward sat and talked with Sakis, one of the two fellows who do all the work of serving us our meals. Then, after this most lovely, friendly day, off to bed.

Monday, April 16: Mycenae and Corinth

Boarded the bus for our trip to Mycenae, and discovered Sophia had talked Bobis into doing the driving. He's very good at it, too. I sure wouldn't want to drive even my little pickup truck on the narrow streets in the towns, but Bobis is unfazed by tight turns, narrow streets, and various obstacles (such as wandering donkeys). I suppose, compared to a ship, the bus seems small.

Arriving at Mycenae we went first to the Palace at the top of the hill. We entered through the famous Lion Gate. Sophia said the Lions are probably headless because the heads were made of gold. The first official excavations yielded no treasure, despite the fact (or maybe because of the fact) that the Homeric characterization was of "Mycenae, rich with gold." The robbers beat the archeologists, but it turned out that they didn't get all the treasure. Immediately inside the gate is Grave Circle A, where Schliemann excavated the royal shaft graves and found much gold treasure, including the so-called "mask of Agamemnon." Schliemann looked on the face of some king of Mycenae alright, but it wasn't Agamemnon. Only half of the circle actually had shaft graves, and originally the area was outside the walls of the citadel, but the place was subsequently enlarged, and the graves covered with fill to level things out. Perhaps that is why they were not discovered and looted.

The outer, Cyclopean walls, are made of some sort of concrete. Originally they were cast and fit together so well that there was no need to use mortar. Sophia said the Romans were so impressed with the concrete blocks that they studied them extensively and experimented to try to duplicate the process.

Next to the grave shafts were priests' quarters, which are still being excavated. The Palace itself is at the top of the hill. Looking at the stairs and steep cobbled ramp leading up the hill, I decided discretion was the better part of good sense, and didn't attempt the climb, opting to wander around where I was and take pictures.

We then went down the hill to the Treasury of Atreus, which actually was Agamemnon's tomb. Unfortunately grave robbers did find this long before the archeologists, so there was nothing left inside. But the tomb itself was most impressive.

We went to lunch at a very busy, and very large, restaurant. Next stop was a workshop which turns out handcrafted reproductions of pottery, sculpture, bronzes and, of course, jewelry (the Greek women are very big on gold jewelry). I bought a drinking cup with Dionysos on one side, and Athena on the other. It seemed like a most unusual pairing to me. Maybe an illustration of the adage, "In vino veritas." Ed bought a beautiful cross, with some highly specialized metal work.

We then went to the Agora of ancient Corinth, where we saw samples of Greek column capitals, the remains of the temple to Octavia, built by her brother Augustus, the few remaining columns of the Temple of Apollo, and then walked the marble road leading to the Agora from the harbor. Except we walked it backwards, leaving instead of arriving.

After we returned to the hotel we had dinner, and then enjoyed "Greek night." Vagilis and several friends played and sang traditional Greek music. Sophia taught everyone to do the basic steps of the line dance, including myself and Ed. Indeed, Ed became so confident that when Sophia pulled him up on the table to dance he actually did dance, to the surprised clapping of everyone and the traditional sound of a couple of shattering plates (I still don't know why breaking plates to celebrate an enthusiastic dance performance is done, but it is). Everyone had a great time. The evening ended with Vagilis and two friends doing the "Zorba" dance with linked arms. I thought they were pretty good.