Hello everyone! As of two days ago, I am now back in the United States after having spent the past just over six weeks in Greece taking part in the 2023 ASCSA Summer Session. Unfortunately, while I was in Greece, I was so busy that I was not really able to keep up with my blog of my experience. Now that I am back in the U.S., though, I intend to continue posting my account of my experience until I have covered the entire six weeks. Partly on the advice of my parents, from this point onward, I intend to break up my account into shorter, more frequent posts than I have been previously.
This post is the fourth installment in my ongoing series, covering the period of Tuesday, July 4th, through Saturday, July 8th. (Here are the previous three installments: first, second, and third.) In this installment, I will describe how I got to see behind the scenes at an archaeological excavation with restricted access, how I got to go inside an astoundingly well-preserved ancient Greek temple that very few people even know exists, and how I participated in a footrace in the stadium of the ancient Olympic Games at Olympia.
Tuesday, July 4th, 2023
I left off my last installment with our arrival in Pylos, which, as readers may recall, is a beautiful seaside town on the southern end of the west coast of the Peloponnesos. We ate breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and then headed over to the ancient site of Pylos, which is located a short distance away from the modern town.
There, we met up with Dr. Jack L. Davis, who is the current Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati and former director of the ASCSA, and his wife Dr. Sharon Stocker, who is also a professor of Greek archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. Together, Dr. Davis and Dr. Stocker are among the foremost archaeologists of Mycenaean Greece alive today and the current co-directors of the ongoing excavations at Pylos.
First, Dr. Davis gave us a tour of the ruins of the so-called “Palace of Nestor,” which is the best-preserved Mycenaean palace. The ruins are protected underneath a massive roof, which the ASCSA recently constructed with funding mostly from European donors.
ABOVE: A view of the ruins of the “Palace of Nestor”
ABOVE: Another view of the ruins of the “Palace of Nestor”
ABOVE: Another view of the “Palace of Nestor,” showing a room with a bathtub, which is the best-preserved bathtub from the Bronze Age Aegean
After Dr. Davis’s tour of the palace, Dr. Stocker showed us Tholos IV.
ABOVE: Exterior of Tholos IV
ABOVE: Interior of Tholos IV
After showing us the tholos, Dr. Stocker talked to us about the Tomb of the Griffin Warrior, a Mycenaean shaft grave dating to around 1450 BCE or thereabouts that she and Dr. Davis discovered and excavated in 2015. The grave was unlooted and contained a large quantity of truly spectacular grave goods.
The most exciting artifact they found in the tomb is the Pylos Combat Agate, a Minoan-style seal carved from agate that bears an engraving of unparalleled quality and detail depicting a warrior in the act of striking the killing blow against another warrior while the corpse of a third warrior lies strewn upon the ground.
After she told us about the Tomb of the Griffin Warrior, Dr. Stocker took us into a restricted area to show us the ongoing excavations at the site. They strictly prohibited us from taking any photos whatsoever of the excavations and also from describing any of the ruins or artifacts we saw coming up out of the ground on any public forum.
As a result of this, I am not allowed to say any of what we saw there here. I will, however, say in general terms that the excavation project is massive and they are finding some truly extraordinary materials. Being allowed to see the excavations at Pylos has been one of the highlights of the trip.
After visiting ancient Pylos, we were supposed to visit the Archaeological Museum of Chora and the Ottoman fortress Neokastro, but we were not able to because they both unexpectedly happened to be closed that day. Instead, the bus took us back to modern Pylos. There, we had some rare free time to eat lunch and relax for a little while.
I ended up eating lunch with some of my fellow students at a restaurant next to our hotel. Unfortunately, the power went out at both the restaurant and the hotel while we were eating and it remained out for the rest of the afternoon.
At 4:00 p.m., we met back together at the harbor and boarded a little boat, which took us across the water from Pylos to Sphakteria, which is a small island off the coast right next to Pylos. It was absolutely wonderful on the water, a delightful sea breeze was blowing, and the scenery was terrific. As the boat sped out, we passed Neokastro, the Ottoman fortress that we were originally supposed to visit that afternoon, and we caught a view of it from the water.
ABOVE: View of the Ottoman fortress Neokastro, which we sailed past on our boat ride to Sphakteria
When we reached Sphakteria, we went around the island and saw the rocky cliffs that surround it on all sides except for the harbor. The cliffs themselves were spectacular and the water around them was astoundingly blue.
ABOVE: View of the cliff face and natural arch at Sphakteria
ABOVE: View of caves in the rock overlooking the deep blue water off Sphakteria
After viewing the cliffs, we went around to the harbor side and came ashore on the island. There, one of my fellow students delivered a report about the Battles of Pylos and Sphakteria, which took place in 425 BCE during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and concluded with the Athenian forces under the leadership of the generals Demosthenes and Kleon forcing 292 Spartan hoplites, including 120 who were Spartan citizens, to surrender and be taken captive.
After the report, most of the students changed into their swim clothes and went swimming. (I hadn’t brought my swim clothes, so I stayed on the boat with a couple of others.) After the others had their swim, we all got back on the boat and it carried us back across the water to Pylos.
ABOVE: Me on the boat back from Sphakteria to Pylos
It was Independence Day, so some of the other students went out drinking that evening to celebrate, but I did not participate in their celebration. Instead, I spent most of the night on my own. The view from the balcony of the hotel room that my roommate and I shared was just as lovely at night as it was during the day. At night, lights came on, a musician was playing a stringed instrument (a violin, I think) in the plateia nearby, and I could hear the music from the balcony.
ABOVE: Photo showing the view from the balcony of our hotel room at night
Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
We ate breakfast in the hotel, collected all our belongings, checked out of the hotel, and loaded onto the bus. We then rode out to the ruins of Messene, which was an ancient Greek city-state in the southwestern Peloponnesos. The city-state existed in the early Archaic Period, but, by the middle of the seventh century BCE at the latest, the Spartans had conquered Messene and enslaved the Messenians as helots.
Around three centuries later, in 371 BCE, the Theban army led by the general Epaminondas utterly crushed the Spartans and their allies in the Battle of Leuktra, utterly destroying Sparta’s political dominance over Greece. The Thebans invaded the Peloponnesos and liberated the Messenian helots and, in 369 BCE, Epaminondas re-founded the city of Messene and fortified it so that the newly-liberated Messenians would be able to defend it against the Spartans.
First, we saw the colossal stone walls and the double gate that the Thebans built using the emplekton technique and ashlar masonry to protect the reestablished city. There, one of my fellow students gave a site report about the walls and gate.
ABOVE: Photo I took of the remains of the magnificent double gate of Messene
After that, we went to see the ruins of the city itself and Glenn gave us one hour to explore on our own. In my opinion, Messene is truly a hidden gem of the western Peloponnesos; it is an absolutely sprawling site full of ruins. The well-preserved ruins include Roman-era houses with mosaic floors, temples to various deities, an ancient theater, a fountain house, an agora, a gymnasion, and a stadium.
I had no idea just how massive the site was and how many ruins were there until I saw it for myself. One hour was not nearly enough time to see everything there was to see there; I didn’t even have enough time to make it down to the stadium before we needed to start heading back to the bus in order to go over to the museum. There is a Metroön (i.e., a temple of Kybele) at Messene, but, unfortunately, I did not manage to find it before we had to leave.
Because Messene is not a well-known site at all, we were virtually the only people there. In the whole trip, it was one of the few places where I felt like we were able to explore truly expansive, well-preserved ancient ruins from the historical period almost entirely on our own without any other tourists hanging around.
Unfortunately, while we were there, it was absolutely blisteringly hot, there was extremely little shade anywhere on the site, and, by the time I made it back to the top to leave, I was absolutely drenched in sweat. I would love to go back there sometime during a season when the temperature is cooler, but I do not know if I will ever have the chance.
ABOVE: Remains of a Roman-era house at Messene near where we entered the site
ABOVE: The ancient theater of Messene
ABOVE: The Arsinoë Fountain House at Messene
ABOVE: Ruins of the Stoa of the Meatmarket at Messene
ABOVE: Ruined Temple of Aphrodite at Messene
ABOVE: Ruins of the Sanctuary of Asklepios at Messene
ABOVE: Ruins of the Temple of Artemis Orthia at Messene
ABOVE: The stadium and some other ruins further down the hill that I unfortunately did not have time to see close up
After we viewed the archaeological site itself, we went to the museum. Probably the most exciting object in the museum for me personally was a fragment of a marble statue carved by the Messenian sculptor Damophon in the second century BCE that once depicts Kybele sitting on a cista (i.e., a round basket containing sacred items related to a mystery cult that non-initiates are forbidden to see) with a lionskin covering it and a serpent coiled around it.
ABOVE: Photo I took of the fragment of Damophon’s statue
The museum also contained some other artifacts of significant interest, including a fragment of a votive marble statue dating to the first century BCE depicting Kybele sitting on a throne with a lion by her side.
ABOVE: The other statue of Kybele I saw in the Archaeological Museum of Messene
The museum also has a majestic statue dating to the middle of the second century CE depicting the Egyptian goddess Isis standing on the prow of a ship.
ABOVE: Statue of Isis in the Archaeological Museum of Messene
After leaving Messene, we crossed over from Messenia into Arkadia, which is the central area of the Peloponnesos. Arkadia is highly mountainous and was known in antiquity for its rustic inhabitants. The bus took us to Megalopolis, the first major city in the region of Arkadia, which Epaminondas founded in 371/0 BCE in order to counteract Spartan power in the region.
The name Megalopolis literally means “Big City” and it was indeed an important city during the Hellenistic Period; its native sons in that era included such textbook figures as the general and statesman Philopoimen (lived 253 – 183 BCE) and the historian Polybios (lived c. 200 – c. 118 BCE). Sadly, all that remains at the site today is an ancient theater and the Thersilion, which is located right next to the theater and was originally built as the meeting hall for the council of the Arkadian League.
The theater, which was once one of the largest known in the entire Greek world, had a seating capacity in antiquity of around 20,000 people. The Theater of Epidauros, which is far more famous today, is small by comparison, since it only has a seating capacity of around 14,000 people.
Sadly, unlike the Theater of Epidauros, which is known for its remarkable state of preservation, the Theater of Megalopolis is extremely poorly preserved. In fact, when we were there, Glenn commented that it seemed to be in a noticeably worse state than it was when he saw it for the first time back in the 1970s.
ABOVE: The Theater of Megalopolis
ABOVE: Ruins of the Thersilion, which was the meeting hall for the council of the Arkadian League
After our quick stop at Megalopolis to see the theater and the Thersilion, the bus took us to and up Mount Lykaion, which is the tallest mountain in Arkadia, on top of which the ancient Greeks had a sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios.
As I discuss in this blog post I wrote back in October 2021, various ancient Greek authors, beginning with the Athenian philosopher Plato (lived c. 429 – c. 347 BCE), tell a grisly story that the Arkadians would hold a nocturnal ceremony atop this mountain in which they would sacrifice a human child and mix the child’s entrails with the entrails of various animals. Then, supposedly, they would eat from the entrails that had been mixed together and anyone who happened to eat the human entrails would be transformed into a wolf.
The story goes that, if a person who became a wolf after this ceremony refrained from eating human flesh for nine years, then, after nine years, he would become a human again. If, on the other hand, he did consume human flesh while in the form of a wolf, he would remain a wolf forever.
On the mountain, we met Dr. David Gilman Romano, who is the Nicholas and Athena Karabots Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Arizona, the current co-director and field director of the Mount Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, and possibly the foremost expert on the archaeology of the site who is currently alive.
There were not many visible ancient ruins on Mount Lykaion and the ones we did see were frankly not very visually impressive. Much like Mantineia, the site was mostly overgrown with tall grass and weeds. While Dr. Romano showed us around, we had to wade through grass and weeds that came up to above our waists in some places. There were also lots of spiders and other insects that terrified a few of the other women in our group. (I personally wasn’t as scared of the insects as they were, but I was afraid that we might get ticks from walking through such high grass.)
Despite all this, in my personal opinion, the rich tradition of legends and literary accounts pertaining to the site itself and the activities that supposedly or actually took place there compensated for this and made the site interesting.
Additionally, I felt that the weather while we were there was quite fitting for us visiting a mountain that is sacred to Zeus. The temperature cooled down considerably so that, for a brief time, it was no longer unbearably hot. There was some nice wind (but not too much), dark clouds covered the sky, and we heard the loud rumbling of thunder on the distance. (It did not actually rain, however, while we were out on the mountain.)
Dr. Romano was extremely nice and had many interesting things to say about the mountain and the ancient remains there. He also told us about how, one time, because of his work at the site, a BBC documentary about werewolves decided to feature him as an expert, which we all thought was fun.
ABOVE: Photo I took showing the view from where we were on top of Mount Lykaion
After the bus drove down from Mount Lykaion, it took us on a two-hour drive along winding, circuitous roads through the mountains to the Temple of Apollon at Bassai. This temple was built sometime in the second half of the fifth century BCE. The ancient travel writer Pausanias (lived c. 110 – c. 180 CE) states in his Description of Greece 8.41.9 that the temple was designed by none other than the architect Iktinos, who, along with Kallikrates, also served as one of the two architects of the Parthenon.
Today, the Temple of Apollon at Bassai is the second-best-preserved ancient temple in Greece, second only to the Temple of Hephaistos in the Athenian Agora (which I wrote about visiting in this previous post). It owes its extraordinary state of preservation to the fact that it is in a remote location high up in the Arkadian mountains far away from any major human settlements. As a result of this, no one in the centuries since the temple was abandoned ever tried to cart away the stones to use them for other building projects.
Unfortunately, the temple is built entirely out of gray Arkadian limestone, which is highly susceptible to wind and water erosion and acid rain. In the 1980s, the Greek ephorate of antiquities erected a white tent over the temple to cover it and protect it. Although the tent was originally supposed to be temporary, it still covers the temple to this day. The tent has not proven very effective and the authorities are still trying to figure out a long-term solution to protect the temple.
To give you some idea of just how far out in the middle of nowhere this temple is, when we drew near Bassai, a flock of sheep ran along the road past the bus.
ABOVE: Photo I took through the bus window of the sheep running along the road past the bus as we drew near Bassai
There was absolutely no one else at Bassai aside from us for the entire time we were there. I definitely received the impression that, despite the temple’s imposing architecture and its extraordinary state of preservation, due to its remote location, very few people visit it.
The temple is roped off and visitors are not normally allowed to go inside, but, because we are affiliated with the ASCSA, we received special permission to go inside the temple, which was, as always, a truly amazing experience. One of my fellow students gave her site report about the temple while we were all standing inside the naos. We were allowed to take photos inside, but we were not allowed to take any of ourselves posing.
ABOVE: View of the exterior of the Temple of Apollon at Bassai
ABOVE: View of some of the external columns of the temple
ABOVE: View inside the naos of the Temple of Apollon at Bassai
ABOVE: View inside the naos of the temple from the other side
After we left Bassai, the bus drove down out of the mountains and crossed over into the region of Elis. We were originally supposed to stay for the next two night in Olympia, but there were not enough rooms available in any of the hotels there. As a result, circumstances compelled the school to book our hotel rooms for the next two nights in the nearby city of Pyrgos.
Within the first night, many of us already decided that we did not like Pyrgos. The town seemed seedy and unsafe. I ate dinner that night with a group of other students and one of the women who was with us went back to the hotel alone before the rest of us did. Even though it was not a very long walk back to the hotel, she reported that multiple men catcalled her on her way back and that she felt very frightened. After that, we decided to use the buddy system and not go anywhere without at least one other member of the group with us.
Thursday, July 6th, 2023
We woke up, ate breakfast in the hotel, and then rode the bus from Pyrgos to Olympia, which was an extremely important ancient Greek sanctuary of the gods Zeus and Hera and also the site where the Greeks held the Olympic Games, which are the most famous of the four great Panhellenic athletic festivals. Upon arriving, we headed straight for the ruins of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, a Doric peripteral temple constructed in around the second quarter of the fifth century BCE.
In antiquity, this temple housed the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, a colossal statue depicting the god Zeus sitting upon a throne holding a scepter. Most likely in around the late 440s and early 430s BCE, the Athenian sculptor Pheidias fashioned the core of the statue from wood and covered it from head to toe with gold and ivory. (A statue of this kind, made from wood and covered in gold and ivory, is known as chryselephantine.) This statue, which has sadly not survived to the present day, is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Today, the only parts of the Temple of Zeus itself that remain standing on the original location are the crepidoma (i.e., the stepped platform on which the temple stood), some of the lowest blocks of the temple walls, and the lower drums of some of the columns. Modern archaeologists have reconstructed one complete column of the column through anastylosis (i.e., using the original ancient materials to the greatest possible extent) to give visitors an impression of what the columns originally looked like.
ABOVE: View of the northwest corner of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, including the column that modern archaeologists have reconstructed
Because we were affiliated with the ASCSA, we were given special permission to go up onto the stylobate of the Temple of Zeus and, there, one of my fellow students delivered a site report about the temple, in which he, among other things, pointed out the place where the famed Statue of Zeus itself once stood.
ABOVE: View from on top of the stylobate of the place where the Statue of Zeus at Olympia once stood
After that, we went to the Temple of Hera at Olympia, which stands directly to the north of the Temple of Zeus. The Temple of Hera is actually significantly older than the Temple of Zeus that stands right next to it, since it was originally constructed sometime around 590 BCE. One of my fellow students delivered a site report about the temple.
ABOVE: View of the east (front) side of the Temple of Hera at Olympia
ABOVE: View of the southeast corner of the Temple of Hera
ABOVE: View of the Temple of Hera from the southwest
After visiting the Temple of Hera, we went over to the ancient Olympic stadium, where the ancient Greeks held footraces for the ancient Olympic Games. There, at the stadium, another one of my fellow students delivered her site report about the stadium and the ancient Olympic Games that took place there.
After she gave her report, she suggested that we hold a footrace in the stadium like we did before at the stadium at Nemea (as I described in my previous blog post). This time, most people didn’t want to participate, but eight of us did go down to the stadium and run a footrace, including me. I came in sixth place overall, but I was the second-fastest of the women, since the first four places were all men.
ABOVE: View of the ancient stadium of Olympia
After the stadium, we went back and saw the Philippeion, which is an Ionic tholos (i.e., “beehive” or round) memorial dedicated to King Philippos II of Makedonia and his family, which is located just southwest of the Temple of Hera.
ABOVE: View of the Philippeion
After that, Glenn told us we were free to do whatever we wanted until a set time that afternoon when we would all meet back up at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. I joined a group of students who left the archaeological site and went into the town of Olympia to eat lunch at a local restaurant.
After lunch, we went to the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games of Antiquity, which is housed in the old building of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia before the museum was moved to its present building. This museum is smaller and does not have as many truly exciting artifacts as the Archaeological Museum, but it does have an interesting collection and is definitely worth seeing for anyone who goes to Olympia.
ABOVE: Fragment of a statue of Nike, the divine personification of victory, dating to between c. 500 and c. 430 BCE
ABOVE: Bronze statue head of a boy and accompanying bronze tablet
ABOVE: Marble statue of Zeus from the Nymphaeum at Olympia dating to the second century CE
After the Museum of the Olympic Games of Antiquity, I went over to the Archaeological Museum on my own, even though we still had some time left before we were supposed to meet there, because I knew that I wanted to spend some time looking through the museum’s collection on my own.
The Archaeological Museum of Olympia is a sprawling museum with an exceptional collection full of all kinds of fascinating and unique artifacts. For instance, in the first room right when one walks in, one sees pieces of a bronze relief that was originally made in workshop in the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BCE. Somehow, this relief found its way to Greece, where, in the sixth century BCE, an artist reused it as decoration for the clothing of a daidalic sculpture. I really wish that it were possible to know the history of how the relief ended up decorating a Greek statue, since I’m sure it must be fascinating.
ABOVE: Neo-Assyrian bronze relief
ABOVE: More pieces of the Neo-Assyrian bronze relief
The museum also holds a number of exceptional terracotta sculptures dating to the fifth century BCE, including a head of the goddess Athena, a statue of Zeus abducting the mortal adolescent boy Ganymedes, and a statue of a dolphin.
ABOVE: Terracotta head of the goddess Athena dating to around 490 BCE
ABOVE: Terracotta statue of Zeus abducting Ganymedes dating to between c. 480 and c. 470 BCE
ABOVE: Terracotta statue of a dolphin dating to the late fifth century BCE
Two of the most exciting historical artifacts in the museum’s collection are a pair of bronze helmets dating to the early fifth century BCE that archaeologists excavated from the ruins of the Temple of Zeus and are now held together in the museum in the same glass case.
ABOVE: Photo of the Persian helmet and the helmet of Miltiades
The helmet on the viewer’s left in the photo above is a Persian Assyrian-style conical bronze helmet that the Athenians captured from an Achaemenid Persian soldier at some point during the Greco-Persian Wars (lasted 499 – 449 BCE) and dedicated to Zeus at Olympia. The helmet bears an inscription in stippled letters in Greek along the bottom, which reads: “ΔΙΙ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΙ ΜΕΔΟΝ ΛΑΒΟΝΤΕΣ,” which means “The Athenians [dedicate this] to Zeus, having taken [it] from the Medes.”
This helmet is one of very few surviving Persian helmets and possibly the only authentic votive offering from the spoils of the Greco-Persian Wars of the early fifth century BCE that is has survived to the present day.
ABOVE: Closer view of the inscription on the Persian helmet
Meanwhile, the helmet on the viewer’s right is a Greek bronze Corinthian-type helmet that the famous Athenian general Miltiades (lived c. 550 – 489 BCE), who was primarily responsible for orchestrating the Athenian victory over the Achaemenid Persians in the Battle Marathon in 490 BCE, apparently dedicated to Zeus at Olympia, most likely after his most famous victory at Marathon. The helmet bears the inscription in Greek: “ΜΙΛΤΙΑΔΕΣ ΑΝΕ[Θ]ΕΚΕΝ [Τ]ΟΙ ΔΙ,” which means “Miltiades dedicated [this] to Zeus.”
Many sources, especially those online, describe this helmet rather sensationally as the one Miltiades himself wore during the Battle of Marathon. This may be the case, but we cannot be certain that Miltiades personally wore this helmet on any specific occasion; all we know is that he dedicated it.
It was relatively common for ancient Greek men to commission objects, including weapons and armor, specifically in order to dedicate them. It is therefore possible that Miltiades commissioned the helmet for this purpose and dedicated it without having ever actually worn it.
ABOVE: Closer view of the helmet of Miltiades at Olympia
In the museum, directly behind the helmets I have just described, stands the Nike of Paionios, which is a statue of Nike commissioned by the Messenians and Naupaktians that the sculptor Paionios of Mende carved from Parian marble between c. 425 and c. 420 BCE. It is one of only a tiny number of original statues made by known masters during the Classical Period that have survived to the present day.
ABOVE: Photo I took of the Nike of Paionios in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia
ABOVE: Closer view of the Nike statue from a different angle
Another original sculptural masterpiece from the Classical Period that the Archaeological Museum of Olympia holds on display is an exceptionally fine and exceptionally well-preserved marble statue of the god Hermes carrying the infant Dionysos that dates to the fourth century BCE and was displayed in antiquity in the Temple of Hera at Olympia.
The ancient travel writer Pausanias seems to mention this statue in his Description of Greece 5.17.3, where he identifies it as an original work by none other than the famous Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. A contentious debate exists among modern art historians about whether the surviving statue is indeed the work of Praxiteles himself or simply another member of his school, but the museum labels the statue the work of Praxiteles himself.
ABOVE: View of Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysos from the front
ABOVE: Closer view of the Hermes statue from the front
ABOVE: View of the right side of the Hermes statue
ABOVE: View of the left side of the Hermes statue
The most famous sculptural masterpiece from the Classical Period that once stood at Olympia is, of course, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia by Pheidias, which, as I mentioned earlier, stood inside the naos of the Temple of Zeus and has not survived to the present day.
In an ironic twist of fate, even though not even a single fragment of the great masterpiece that Pheidias spent so many years of his life meticulously crafting has survived, the workshop at Olympia in which he made it has. Archaeologists excavated this workshop and, in it, they found the tools and terracotta molds that Pheidias used to make the statue, as well as fragments of scrap ivory that he discarded. These tools, terracotta molds, and discarded ivory fragments are now on display on the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.
ABOVE: Bone tools and fragments of ivory left over from when Pheidias made the Statue of Zeus at Olympia
ABOVE: Terracotta molds that Pheidias used to cast the gold garments of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The centerpiece of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia’s collection, however, are the glorious metopes and pedimental sculptures that once decorated the exterior of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. These sculptures date to around 460 BCE, are in the “Severe style” characteristic of the early Classical Period, and are carved from the finest quality marble imported from the island of Paros in the Kyklades. Unlike the cult statue that stood inside the temple, they have survived to the present day, although admittedly not in perfect condition.
The metopes, which decorated the spaces between the triglyphs on the entablature of the Doric temple, depict the Twelve Labors of Herakles, the son of Zeus. Some of these are better preserved than others.
ABOVE: Metope from the Temple of Zeus depicting Herakles presenting the dead Stymphalian birds to his patron the goddess Athena
ABOVE: Metope depicting Herakles cleaning the Augeian stables with the goddess Athena standing behind him
ABOVE: Metope depicting Herakles retrieving the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides with the Titan Atlas standing before him holding up the sky
The ancient Greeks told various myths about the founding of the ancient Olympic Games. One popular tradition, however, held that the games commemorated the occasion when Pelops, the son of Tantalos, competed in a chariot race against King Oinomaos of Pisa for the hand of Oinomaos’s daughter Hippodameia in marriage. The sculptures of the East Pediment of the Temple of Zeus, which stood directly over the front entrance to the temple, depict this mythic chariot race.
In the center of the East Pediment, directly over the entrance to the temple, stands the god Zeus himself. On his right stands King Oinomaos and on his left stands the young Pelops. To Pelops’s left and Oinomaos’s right stand two women who are leading the horses for the race. On the north and south ends of the pediment lie various spectators.
ABOVE: Central figures of the East Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia
ABOVE: View of the sculptures from the north end of the East Pediment
ABOVE: Close-up view of the seer from East Pediment
Meanwhile, the sculptures of the West Pediment, which stood over the back of the temple, depict the mythical battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs. In the center of this violent scene, the god Apollon, Zeus’s son, stands looking powerful and serene with his head turned and his right arm extended, pointing to the north to indicate his support for the Lapiths.
Apollon seems to be invisible to all the other figures in the scene, who display no awareness of his presence. In this way, the sculptor seems to remind the viewer that the deities are often invisibly present, can exert unseen influence over events in the human realm, and can decide the outcomes of human conflicts to favor their preferred side.
ABOVE: Central figures of the West Pediment
ABOVE: Closer view of Apollon at the center of the West Pediment
ABOVE: Detail of a centaur to Apollon’s right who is trying to abduct and rape a Lapith teenaged girl
ABOVE: Detail of the Lapiths and centaurs fighting to Apollon’s left, with one Lapith girl struggling with a centaur, pulling his beard and grabbing his hair, while a centaur bites the arm of a Lapith man
ABOVE: Closer view of the centaur biting the Lapith
ABOVE: Sculptures from the south end of the West Pediment
When we reassembled, the same student who gave the report about the Temple of Zeus that morning continued his report by telling us about the metopes and pedimental sculptures from the temple. After his report, we all headed back to the bus, which took us back to our hotel in Pyrgos.
Friday, July 7th, 2023
In the morning, we woke up, ate breakfast in the hotel, and boarded the bus. The bus drove us away from Pyrgos through the countryside of Elis.
As many of my readers know, I grew up in rural Indiana, where most of the land consists of flat fields of corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see. Over my weeks of traveling through Greece and watching through the window of the bus, I saw lots of mountains, hills, and beaches, which are totally alien to the landscape I knew back home. In marked contrast to this, the countryside of Elis actually reminded me very much of home. The country there consists mostly of flat land covered in fields of grain (mostly wheat, I think) as far as the eye can see.
ABOVE: Photo I took through the window of the bus showing the flat countryside of Elis
The bus drove us to Chlemoutsi, which is a medieval castle that the Frankish rulers of the Principality of Achaea constructed in the early 1220s CE. It is possibly the finest and best preserved early Frankish castle in Greece. Inside the courtyard of the castle, one of my fellow students delivered a site report about the castle and its history. After that, Glenn gave us some time to walk around and explore the castle on our own before we loaded back onto the bus.
ABOVE: Gate of the outer wall surrounding Chlemoutsi
ABOVE: View of Chlemoutsi Castle
ABOVE: Inner courtyard of Chlemoutsi Castle
After Chlemoutsi, we rode the bus to Patras, which is a major port city located on the northern coast of the Peloponnesos on the Gulf of Patras. Today, it is the third most populous city in Greece as a whole after Athens and Thessaloniki and the most populous city in the Peloponnesos. We did not stay in Patras long, however, and the only thing we did there was go to the city’s archaeological museum.
Patras was a populous and affluent port city during the time of the Roman Empire. As a result of this, the Archaeological Museum of Patras houses a large collection of artworks and artifacts dating to that period. In particular, the museum holds a large number of mosaics that once decorated private wealthy homes of that era.
ABOVE: Entrance to a bath from a private home dating to the Roman Period
ABOVE: Roman-Period mosaic depicting the goddess Aphrodite gazing at herself in a mirror while her son Eros kneels beside her and two doves make out behind her
ABOVE: Mosaic dating to the second or third century CE depicting the three Charites dancing in a circle around an altar
ABOVE: Marble statue of the god Dionysos dating to the second century CE
ABOVE: Marble statue of the goddess Athena dating to the Roman Period, based on the Athena Parthenos by Pheidias, which once stood in the naos of the Parthenon
ABOVE: Roman-Period mosaic depicting (in the upper band) scenes of theatrical and musical performance and (in the lower band) scenes of athletic competition
After we finished up in the Archaeological Museum of Patras, we got back on the bus and rode to the Rion Castle, which Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire constructed on the tip of the Rion Peninsula on the north coast of the Peloponnesos at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth in 1499.
We went inside the castle, but we only stayed there for about fifteen minutes because we were in a hurry to get back to Athens and we still had a long way to ride. I also received the distinct impression that Glenn does not like the Ottomans and that he did not want to stay there for very long anyway.
ABOVE: View of the exterior of Rion Castle
ABOVE: View inside Rion Castle with the Rion Bridge in the background
ABOVE: View of a tower at Rion Castle
After leaving Rion Castle, we all got back on the bus. At some point we made a stop for a quick lunch, but otherwise we were on the bus from that point until we made it back to the ASCSA’s main campus in Athens. We ate dinner at 8:00 p.m. in the dining room at Loring Hall.
Saturday, July 8th, 2023
On this day, we had our only completely free day of the entire program. The idea was to give us an opportunity to recover from the busy, ten-day journey through the Peloponnesos we had just completed. I chose to spend most of the day relaxing and enjoying the air conditioning alone in my room at Loring Hall.
Interesting as always! I was wondering how this trek was holding up, with all the news stories about wildfires and excessive heat in Greece this month.
One thing I would have liked more details about is the food — what did you eat at your meals in these places, when left on your own?
And another observation is that the organizers of these excursions should take more care to see that sites are open to these groups when they should be, without surprise closures, and also that accommodations are upgraded so the students aren’t put up in unacceptable hotels or in dodgy parts of towns/cities.
Lovely to get another part of your travelogue! This part was very interesting; if I ever go to Greece Messene, Arkadia and Olympia seems like a good route.
The rocks and the waters of Sphakteria look so wonderful; it must be lovely to go boating there, like you!
From your description, Messene definitely sounds like it is worth a visit. Alas that you had not the time to study Kybele’s temple though!
‘Et in Arcadia tu’!
The Neo-Assyrian relief seems like an amazing artifact, and the am also very curious how it got to Greece! I guess it is Olympia’s version of the Helgö Buddha.
The Persian helmet is also very interesting, though I was aware of it before (having read a bit about the Achaemenid military). It is noteworthy that both Greek and Persian art seldom depicts them with any armour or helmets, but Herodotus does, as you may be aware, describe Assyrians in the army as wearing bronze helmets.
The Nike of Paionios I remember from my course this spring, as I (and my fellow-students) always had problems remembering if it was ‘High Classical’ or ‘Late Classical’! We were also quizzed on the Centauromachy in the West Pediment and the Metope depicting Heracles’ 11th labour, I think.
The museum in Patras, a city I had never heard of, has a lot of amazing finds it seems!
Funny that you got the impression the professor is not fond of the Ottomans; even the assessments of scholars can be a bit clouded affected by Opinion, of course!
There are a lot of sites in Messenia and Arkadia that very few tourists go to visit because they are in such remote locations, such as Messene and Bassai. That being said, Olympia is an extremely popular site for tourists; there are always tons of people there. Thankfully, it is a massive site, so it can generally handle the crowds much better than, say, the Akropolis.
Another beautiful site with fairly extensive ruins from the Classical Period that we were able to explore almost entirely on our own without any tourists was Rhamnous, which is surprising, since it is located in northern Attica not far at all from Athens. We went there on one of our day trips while we were staying in Athens. Another site like that was Dion, which is located under the shadow of Mount Olympos. We went there on the northern trip. I’ll write about both of those sites more in one of my future posts.
There are a surprising number of sites in Attica around Athens that very few tourists visit. Almost no one goes to Brauron, Thorikos, Eleutherai, Mount Pentelikos, or Rhamnous. Some tourists do go to Eleusis, but my impression is that the site is never packed. I’m also surprised by the number of people who go to Athens and don’t go to the ancient agora there, even though it is right there in central Athens, literally within walking distance of the Akropolis, it has extensive and highly impressive ancient remains, and its existence is not exactly secret. In my opinion, no trip to Athens would be complete without visiting the ancient agora.
Regarding your last point, my overall impression is that most of the scholars at the ASCSA are not fond of the Ottomans. I don’t think it is controversial to say this. Over the course of the program, a number of scholars we met made negative or hostile comments about the Ottomans and we barely visited or talked about any Ottoman-Period sites. There was one student in our group who is actually interested in the Ottoman Period who was rather annoyed by this.
Oh yes, there are lots of interesting ancient sites to visit if one wants a more unique experience than the average tourist it seems; these all seem like great recommendations!
I can understand not focusing on Ottoman buildings since you are there as Classicists, but that does not entail depreciating or denigrating the Ottomans of course. Too bad many scholars still have such biases.
I was wondering how you and the group were doing with all the news of the fires in Greece. Were you there when they started? Did that affect the trip, at all? I hope all of you are safe.
The wildfires did not affect the trip at all. As a matter of fact, we never encountered any of them.
Nonetheless, the extreme heatwave this July did affect the trip. I will cover how it affected the trip in much greater detail in my upcoming posts, but the short version is that I got heat exhaustion while we were in Thessaloniki. (It turned out fine and I’m perfectly ok now, but it was a rather frightening experience.) Additionally, for the last several weeks of the trip, we were constantly struggling with sites closing early due to the extreme heat and, as a result, there were a lot of sites that we were supposed to visit that we were not able to visit.
Thanks for your interesting reports. Now that you are back home I think you may be interested in this webinar about Cleopatra:
https://mailchi.mp/embca/the-legacy-of-cleopatra-vii-philopator-queen-of-the-ptolemaic-kingdom-540632?e=d32c8666c9
Very good to read more of y0ur Greek venture, and looking forward to more installments! Re: Epaminondas, there is a probably apocryphal tale told about him. It is said that as a Theban general, he was elected to a fixed term of one year only. But because he was on campaign when his term expired, he very naturally didn’t return to Thebes immediately, but rather completed his successful campaign. Success that it was, he was charged with treason upon his return to Thebes. As the story goes, he advised the Thebans that he would be glad to forego the necessity of a trial, and submit immediately to the death penalty–provided that he could write his own epitaph. They agreed, and Epaminondas is said to have written, IIRC, ‘By my hands was Sparta shorn of her glory, and holy Messenia received back at last her children. By the arms of Thebes was Megalopolis fortified, and all of Greece was independent and free.’ One way or another, charges were dismissed. Like I said, almost certainly apocryphal, but Epaminondas certainly was one of history’s great liberators (well, at least for a time!). Thanks again for all of these posts!
Just relieved that you are okay despite the heat and difficulty. We were all thinking of you as the news about the heat and the fires came in.
Thanks! I’m flattered to hear that you were thinking of me! That’s very sweet of you!
Come back to Quora! It needs good writers and clear-headed thinkers like you, writing on their topics of expertise. There’s a recent resurgence of nonsense beliefs trying to anchor themselves in antiquity and your account has (and would have) credibility to keep educating the rest of us. I wouldn’t have been disabused of the “Modern Greeks are unrelated to Ancient Greeks” bit if it wasn’t for your answer, which is what led me here. Hope you’ll consider it.
I am not going back to Quora. I’m done with that website. I wrote about my reasons for leaving Quora in this post I wrote over a year ago. Since I wrote that post, my reasons for leaving have only grown. In fact, I have given very serious thought to deleting my Quora account entirely. Really the only reason why I haven’t deleted my account yet is because it still brings some readers like you here to my blog.
If you enjoy reading my old posts on Quora, I would recommend becoming an email subscriber to this blog. Most of the really long answers I wrote during my time on Quora are also published as posts on this blog and, even now, I still write (and will continue to write) brand new, detailed, heavily researched posts on this blog of the same kind that I used to write on Quora.