My Exciting Adventure in Greece, Part 7

Hello everyone! Even though I’ve been back in the U.S. for over a month now and the fall 2023 semester has already started, I still want to finish my account of my time in Greece this summer. Thus, this is the seventh installment in my ongoing series of posts about my experience in the 2023 ASCSA Summer Session, covering the period from Monday, July 17th through Thursday, July 20th. (Here are the previous installments, for those who may have missed them: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.)

This will be the second to last post in this series; once the series is finished, I will return to my usual research posts. In this installment, I will describe how I went inside the Kasta tomb, how I got heat exhaustion in Thessaloniki, how I visited an ancient sanctuary of Zeus under the shadow of Mount Olympos, how I saw the site of the famous Battle of Thermopylai, and how our bus driver got lost in Athens on our way back to the school.

Monday, July 17th, 2023

We ate breakfast at our hotel in Thessaloniki, but we didn’t stay in Thessaloniki for very long this day, because, after breakfast, we immediately loaded onto the bus and rode out to visit sites in the Chalkidike. First, we went to the Kasta tomb, which is an enormous Makedonia royal tomb located underneath a tumulus or burial mound near the ruins of the city of Amphipolis in the western Chalkidike. It most likely dates to sometime between c. 335 and c. 300 BCE and is even larger and more lavishly decorated than the tomb of Philippos II.

Archaeologists first identified that the tumulus was most likely the spot of a significant burial in the 1970s, but they didn’t find the location of the inner chamber of the tomb until 2012. They first entered the tomb in 2014. Today, they are still excavating it and they don’t normally allow anyone to see it, but they did allow us to go in because we were affiliated with the ASCSA.

That being said, they strictly prohibited us from taking any photos whatsoever of the tomb’s exterior or interior and they admonished us to put all phones and cameras away so that they would know we weren’t taking photos. They only allowed half of us to go inside the tomb at a time due to the limitations of space. One of the excavators gave us a tour.

ABOVE: View from a distance of the tumulus underneath which the Kasta tomb lies

A set of stairs led down to a colossal gateway with a pair of lion statues standing guard over the entrance. The inside of the tomb consists of a series of three rooms. The first of these rooms is the largest and, on either side of the entrance into the second room, stands an exquisitely carved, larger-than-life marble karyatid (i.e., a statue of a woman serving as a support column). I noticed that it was much cooler inside the tomb than it was outside. The tomb would have been dark, but they had electric lights set up inside so that we could see. Scaffolding covered the walls and we stood on a walkway that the excavators have installed, not on the actual floor of the tomb.

On the floor in the second room, underneath the walkway, is an exquisite mosaic of Hades abducting Persephone. We couldn’t see most of the mosaic because it was mostly covered up by the walkway and by cloth, but parts of it were exposed so that we could see.

Finally, the third and deepest room is the actual burial chamber. In the center of the room is a deep burial shaft, in which the excavators found the remains of five individuals: one woman older than sixty, two men aged between thirty-five and forty-five, a newborn, and a few cremated bone fragments of a fifth individual of unidentifiable age and sex.

The man who gave us our tour of the tomb claimed that Alexandros III is the only king who could possibly have commissioned a tomb of such extraordinary size and lavish decoration and that it may be the tomb where Alexandros himself was originally supposed to be buried before Ptolemaios I Soter hijacked his funeral procession and took his body to Egypt to be entombed in a mausoleum in Alexandria. He said that, even if Alexandros did not intend the tomb for himself, he certainly must have intended it for someone very close to him, possibly his lover Hephaistion, his wife Roxane, and/or his mother Olympias.

After seeing the tomb, we hopped back on the bus and rode to the Archaeological Museum of Amphipolis. The first object we saw when we walked in was the silver ossuary and gold laurel crown of the renowned Spartan general Brasidas, who captured the city from the Athenians in winter 424/423 BCE using an unconventional army made up of helots and Peloponnesian mercenaries that contained no actual Spartiates and by offering the Amphipolitans moderate terms of surrender.

An Athenian force led by the general Kleon tried to retake Amphipolis in 422 BCE. In the ensuing battle, Brasidas led the defense charge himself. Thanks in part to his leadership, the Spartans and their allies successfully fended off the Athenians and Kleon died in battle, but Brasidas himself was mortally wounded and died soon afterward. As a result, he was buried with honors at Amphipolis.

ABOVE: Silver ossuary and gold laurel crown of the Spartan general Brasidas, who died and was buried at Amphipolis

Amphipolis, like Pella, was an important city for the worship of the goddess Kybele. A sanctuary to her alone existed somewhere in the city, but archaeologists haven’t found it yet. In the late Hellenistic Period, a sanctuary dedicated to Kybele and her companion Attis was constructed just outside the northeast city walls. There was also a sanctuary of Attis on the northwest side of the city, just inside the walls. As a result, the museum there holds many artifacts related to the worship of Kybele and Attis.

ABOVE: Terra-cotta artifacts from the sanctuary of Kybele and Attis dating to the late Hellenistic and Roman Periods

ABOVE: Detail of a terra-cotta statuette of Attis wearing a Phrygian cap and playing a syrinx

ABOVE: Limestone naïskos relief of Kybele sitting on a throne dating to the Hellenistic Period

ABOVE: Votive relief carving dating to the second or first century BCE depicting Attis wearing a Phrygian cap and holding a syrinx standing next to an altar with a dog by his feet while a female worshipper stands before him

ABOVE: Figurine of a jumper or dancer dating to the second half of the third century BCE

ABOVE: Marble statue of Aphrodite holding Eros dating to the second century BCE

ABOVE: Grave stele of a gladiator dating to the first or second century CE

ABOVE: Roman-era mosaic of nymphs abducting Hylas, the young eromenos of Herakles

After exploring the museum, we went around back to see the ruins of the ancient agora of Amphipolis. There, we saw the grave of Brasidas where they found his ossuary and crown, which is located underneath a part of the museum that provides a protective covering over it.

ABOVE: Grave of Brasidas

After that, we went to see the Lion of Amphipolis, a colossal statue of a lion in seated position atop a pedestal located about one kilometer outside Amphipolis. The lion is even larger than the Lion of Chaironeia, which I described us visiting in this previous post. It is a tomb monument and most likely dates to the fourth century BCE, but no one knows for certain exactly who built it or whom it commemorates, since no surviving ancient source ever mentions it.

ABOVE: Photo I had one of my fellow students take of me standing next to the Lion of Amphipolis

After that, we went to see the main archaeological site of Amphipolis, where there are the ruins of four late antique Christian basilicas dating to the fifth and sixth centuries CE.

ABOVE: Ruins of an early Christian basilica at Amphipolis

ABOVE: Different view of the same basilica

At one point while we were there, on the distance, across the water, we could see the faint outline of Mount Athos, which, since at least the eighth century CE, has been a monastic precinct home to important Eastern Orthodox monasteries. Today, it is an autonomous region under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Only men who have ecclesiastical permission are allowed to enter the autonomous region of Mount Athos. Greek law and religious tradition both strictly prohibit any female from entering under any circumstances. The law prohibits not only human women and girls from entering, but even female domestic animals. (The only exception is for female domestic cats, since the monks keep housecats to keep the rodent population in check.)

ABOVE: View across the water of Mount Athos

ABOVE: A different early Christian basilica at Amphipolis

ABOVE: Yet another early Christian basilica

ABOVE: More ruins at Amphipolis

ABOVE: Remains of an ancient mosaic

After seeing all that at Amphipolis, the bus took us to the archaeological site of Olynthos in the eastern Chalkidike. Olynthos was an important city in the region during the Classical Period, but, after the city formed an alliance with Athens against Makedonia, in 348 BCE, King Philippos II took the city after a short siege, slaughtered much of the population, enslaved everyone he didn’t kill, and burned the city to the ground. The remains of the city quickly became buried and no one ever resettled most of the site.

As a result of the sudden destruction and lack of resettlement, the fourth-century BCE remains of the city are remarkably well preserved and the site is a vitally important source of information about Greek city planning and life in the fourth century BCE.

We arrived when site was supposed to be closing. The gates were already locked and the caretakers, who were a couple of women, were about to leave. Nonetheless, the caretakers were incredibly kind to us; they agreed to unlock the gate and the museum building and stay there an extra forty-five minutes or so that we could see the site.

I really cannot emphasize enough just how extraordinarily generous the site caretakers at Olynthos were to us. They would have had every right to have simply told us that the site was closed and refused to let us in, but, instead, they chose to take time out of their own schedules for our sake, without any prior warning. They didn’t even really expect us to hurry; they gave us plenty of time to look around and see what we wanted to see. We all made sure to thank them for their kindness.

ABOVE: Ruins of Olynthos

ABOVE: More ruins of Olynthos

ABOVE: Remains of a fourth-century BCE mosaic at Olynthos

ABOVE: Another fourth-century BCE mosaic at Olynthos

After that, we went back to our hotel in Thessaloniki. A couple of fellow students and I ate take-out dinner that night from a street restaurant that served pasta.

Tuesday, July 18th, 2023

We ate lunch at our hotel in Thessaloniki and then headed out on foot to see Roman and Byzantine monuments throughout the city. First, we saw the Arch of Galerius, a colossal victory arch that the Roman emperor Galerius constructed between 298 and 299 CE to commemorate his victory over the Sassanians in the Battle of Satala and his subsequent capture of the Sassanian capital city of Ktesiphon.

ABOVE: Arch of Galerius

ABOVE: Detail of one of the reliefs on the Arch of Galerius

Next, we saw the Rotunda of Galerius, which Galerius constructed around 306 CE as a mausoleum for himself. When Galerius actually died in 311 CE, however, he was never entombed in the Rotunda; instead, he was buried at Felix Romuliana in what is now Serbia. As a result, the Rotunda stood empty for most of the fourth century until the Christian emperor Theodosius I (augustus 379 – 395 CE) converted it into a Christian church.

The Rotunda remained in use as a church until 1590, when the Ottoman rulers of Thessaloniki converted it into a mosque and added a minaret. In 1912, during the Balkan War, Greece captured Thessaloniki from the Ottomans. The Greeks reconsecrated the Rotunda as an Eastern Orthodox church, but they did not remove the minaret. Today, the building is a historical monument, but it is still used as a church on certain feast days. It is the oldest building in Greece that is still actively used as a church today.

ABOVE: The Rotunda of Galerius

ABOVE: Closer view of the Rotunda

After that, we passed the Church of Hagia Panteleimon, which was originally built in the fourteenth century CE as an Eastern Orthodox church, was converted into a mosque in 1548 under the Ottomans, and was reconsecrated as a church in 1912.

ABOVE: Church of Hagia Panteleimon

Finally, we reached the Church of Hagios Demetrios, which is a Christian church dedicated to Saint Demetrios, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, built on top of the site of a Roman bathhouse where Roman soldiers are said to have imprisoned, executed, and buried the saint. There we met a scholar whose name I sadly don’t remember or have written down who lectured for us and gave us a tour of the church.

The oldest church on the site was built in the fourth century CE, but this church was demolished in the fifth century CE so that a larger basilica could be constructed. A series of fires destroyed much of the church, so, from 629 to 634 CE, it was rebuilt even larger and grander than before. Over the course of the next thousand years, the church structure remained largely unchanged, but, around 1490, the Ottomans converted it into a mosque. After the Greeks captured Thessaloniki in 1912, they reconsecrated the building as a Greek Orthodox church.

Tragically, in 1917, the Great Fire of Thessaloniki destroyed most of the church and, as result, it had to be extensively rebuilt over the course of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. Much of the interior of the church dates to this reconstruction. The Nazis occupied Thessaloniki during part of this reconstruction and, in December 1942, as part of the Holocaust in Greece, Nazi and collaborating Greek officials desecrated and dismantled the historic Jewish cemetery of the city. They reused many of the desecrated Jewish tombstones as building materials for the reconstruction of the church. Finally, in 1949, it was reconsecrated and remains in active use as a Greek Orthodox church to this day.

ABOVE: Church of Hagios Demetrios exterior

ABOVE: Church of Hagios Demetrios interior

We went inside the church and saw the medieval frescoes and mosaics that survived the Great Fire of 1917. The reconstructors of the church carefully preserved these artworks by incorporating them into the walls of the modern building.

ABOVE: Byzantine fresco at the Church of Hagios Demetrios depicting Loukas of Steiris, after whom the monastery of Hosios Loukas takes its name

ABOVE: Byzantine frescoes and mosaics preserved in Hagios Demetrios

ABOVE: More Byzantine frescoes and mosaics inside the church

As we were leaving the church, a very friendly stray dog met us. Some of the other students petted him and he walked with us to the ancient agora of Thessaloniki. This agora was largely constructed in the second century CE during the period of Roman rule over Greece. It includes a two-story stoa, at least two bathhouses, and an odeion or covered theater. In the 1960s, the municipal government intended to build a courthouse at the site, but, after they accidentally discovered the ruins of the agora, a campaign managed to get the courthouse moved elsewhere and the site turned into an archaeological park.

ABOVE: View of the Roman agora of Thessaloniki

After that, we went to the Bey Hamam bathhouse, which Sultan Murad II of the Ottoman Empire constructed in 1444 as the first public bathhouse in the city built by the Ottomans. The baths remained in continuous use for hundreds of years all the way until 1968. We viewed the bathhouse from the outside, but we could not go in because it was closed and locked. The dog followed us there.

ABOVE: Entrance to the Bey Hamam bathhouse from beyond the gate

ABOVE: Another view of the Bey Hamam bathhouse

Next, we walked to the Church of Hagia Sophia, with the dog following us the whole way. The oldest church on this site was built as early as the third century CE, but an earthquake in 620 CE caused it to collapse, so, in the seventh century CE, the Romans built a new church on the site with an architectural plan based on that of the more famous Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. This is the church that still stands today.

Shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki in 1430, Sultan Murad II converted it into a mosque, but, when the Greeks captured Thessaloniki in 1912, they reconsecrated it as a church. It remains in active use as a Greek Orthodox church to this day.

ABOVE: Exterior of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki

ABOVE: Closer view of the entrance to the Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki

We went inside the church and the dog waited patiently outside. Unlike the Church of Hagios Demetrios, which has been heavily restored, most of the interior of the Hagia Sophia actually dates to the medieval period. The stunning Byzantine frescoes and mosaics of the church are spectacularly well preserved.

ABOVE: View of the interior of the church

ABOVE: View of the interior of the dome

ABOVE: View of the front of the church

We were in the church for a while because the scholar who was showing us around gave a lecture for us inside while we sat in the pews. When we came back out, though, the dog was waiting for us. He immediately hopping up and headed over to greet us when he saw us come out.

As we were about to leave, a disheveled beggar came right up to us outside the church. He was dressed in tattered, filthy clothes, his hair and beard were long and tangled, and he displayed to us his left arm, which was severely blackened, withered, and covered in boils as a result of some kind of disease or skin condition. He walked slowly into our midst, muttering something in Greek. None of us could understand what he was saying, but we could guess that it was some kind of plea for help or money.

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that all of us instinctively backed away from him and walked away quickly, afraid that whatever condition was afflicting his arm might be contagious. The others believed that he had leprosy. It is possible that this is true, but I am somewhat skeptical, since I know that there have been extremely few reported cases of leprosy in Greece in the twenty-first century.

I’m not sure if there was anything we could have done to help him, since we couldn’t understand or communicate with him, but I still feel bad about not doing anything to help. I hope that someone else helped him and that he was able to get medical attention for whatever was afflicting his arm.

After that, we went to the ruins of the Palace of Galerius.

ABOVE: Ruins of the Palace of Galerius

ABOVE: Another view of the ruins of the Palace of Galerius

Finally, we concluded our tour of the Roman and Byzantine monuments in the city by returning to the Arch of Galerius, which was the first monument we had seen that morning. There, one of my fellow students delivered a site report about the arch.

ABOVE: Me standing in front of the Arch of Galerius

We broke for lunch. After our break, we went to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, which is a huge museum that holds an impressive collection of artworks and artifacts from sites all over northern Greece. I have included photos of some of the highlights of the museum’s collection below.

ABOVE: Bronze medallion of the goddess Athena from a Makedonian chariot dating to the mid-second century BCE, found in Thessaloniki

ABOVE: Ancient Greek aulos (i.e., a kind of woodwind instrument) carved from bone

ABOVE: Granite miniature temple relief from Amphipolis dating to the late fourth century BCE depicting the Mother of the Gods seated on a throne holding a tympanon and phiale

ABOVE: Statue from Lagyna dating to the early third century BCE depicting the Mother of the Gods sitting on her throne

ABOVE: Roman-era floor mosaic of a Dionysiac scene

ABOVE: Marble portrait head dating to between c. 175 and c. 200 CE thought to depict Alexandros III (i.e., Alexander the Great) with majestic flowing curls

ABOVE: Statue of the Muses Kleio (the Muse of history, left), Euterpe (the Muse of lyric poetry, center), and Erato (the Muse of erotic poetry, right), all dating to around 200 CE

ABOVE: Marble statue of Dionysos dating to the second century CE

ABOVE: Head of a marble cult statue of the goddess Isis from her sanctuary in Thessaloniki, dating to after 138 CE

ABOVE: Marble statue of Aphrodite of the “Aphrodite Frejus” or “Louvre-Naples” type, found in the sanctuary of Isis in Thessaloniki, dating to the first or second century CE, based on an earlier sculpture of the late fifth century BCE

ABOVE: Relief sculpture depicting Epona, the Celtic goddess of horses, whose cult the emperor Galerius may have introduced to Thessaloniki, dating to the fourth century CE

After we looked through the museum on our own for a while, we all met up in the room where the Derveni krater is on display so that one of my fellow students could deliver a report on it. This krater is truly one of the most truly stunning and elaborate pieces of ancient Greek bronze work in existence. It is a funerary volute krater that a highly skilled bronze worker or group of workers fashioned sometime in the fourth century BCE. It was then used as a funerary urn to hold the ashes of Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, a Thessalian aristocrat. (An inscription on the krater records his name.)

The krater is decorated with imagery related to the cult of Dionysos, which I think is quite fitting for a funerary krater for two reasons. First, outside of funerary contexts, kraters were normally used for mixing wine at symposia (i.e., drinking parties), which obviously relates to the cult of Dionysos because Dionysos is the god of wine. On an additional level, Dionysos was also a very important figure in several mystery cults in the ancient Greek world that promised their followers a pleasant afterlife, so it makes sense that one might invoke imagery related to him and his cult on a vessel that was meant to hold someone’s ashes.

ABOVE: Side A of the Derveni krater

ABOVE: Closer view of Dionysos and Ariadne

ABOVE: Closer view of the top of the krater and the figures

ABOVE: Close-up of the statuette of the mainad collapsed from exhaustion

ABOVE: Close-up of the handle of the krater

ABOVE: Side B of the Derveni krater

ABOVE: Closer view of the mainads and satyrs in relief

ABOVE: View of the upper part of Side B

ABOVE: View of the krater from the side

In the same room as the Derveni krater is the Derveni papyrus, which is less spectacular-looking than the krater, but arguably far more important for our understanding of ancient Greece. As I’ve discussed in several previous posts, including this one from January of this year, the climate of Greece is generally ill-suited for the survival of papyri, since the country receives too much precipitation and the ground is too wet. The Derveni papyrus is the only ancient papyrus from ancient Greece that has ever been found in Greece itself and it owes its preservation to a truly remarkable set of circumstances.

The text it bears is a philosophical commentary on an Orphic poem that was most likely originally written in the fifth century BCE and transcribed onto the Derveni papyrus around 340 BCE. It was laid on top of the funeral pyre of a Makedonian nobleman at Derveni sometime in the late fourth century BCE. The fire consumed the bottom parts of the scroll, but carbonized the upper parts.

These carbonized scroll fragments soon became buried and, as a result, managed to survive the ground for over 2,200 years until archaeologists discovered it in 1962. The text reveals new information about ancient Greek religion and philosophy in the Classical Period and is one of the most groundbreaking textual discoveries of the twentieth century.

All the other members of our group walked right past the papyrus without even glancing at it, but I stood beside the display and marveled. I felt thrilled to be standing only inches away from it and able to make out the faint, barely visible letters on the papyrus with my very own eyes.

ABOVE: View of the Derveni papyrus fragments on display

ABOVE: View of some of the more complete pieces of the scroll

After exploring the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, we went to the Museum of Byzantine Culture. This museum first opened in 1994, making it significantly younger than the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. It holds an impressive collection, including a large collection of Christian artworks dating to the fourth and fifth centuries CE.

ABOVE: Early Christian frecoes showing Biblical scenes

ABOVE: More early Christian frescoes

ABOVE: Early Christian statue of Jesus as the “good shepherd,” dating to the mid-fourth century CE

ABOVE: Illuminated gospel manuscript dating to the late eleventh or early twelfth century CE

ABOVE: Fragment of a fresco of John the Baptist from the Middle Byzantine period

ABOVE: Early modern icon of the Virgin and child

ABOVE: Floor mosaic

After visiting those museums, we went back to our hotel. My roommate and I walked to get dinner from the same pasta restaurant we’d eaten food from the night before. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was unbearably hot, dehydrated, and exhausted from all the walking I had done. I was sweating so profusely that I couldn’t wipe the sweat away fast enough before more sweat came to replace it.

As I mentioned before, the air conditioning in the hotel wasn’t operating at full capacity, so the room offered no respite from the unbearable heat. I felt kind of nauseous, but I sat down and ate anyway and drank a significant quantity of water while I ate. I only made it about halfway through my pasta before I felt like I was going to vomit, so I ran to the bathroom, where I vomited several times. I felt weak and dizzy.

My roommate and I suspected that I was suffering from heat exhaustion, so I decided to take a cool shower to cool off. I ended up having to leave the shower to vomit a few times. When I was finished with the shower, I still felt overheated, dehydrated, nauseous, dizzy, and weak.

I wore only what clothing was necessary and lay down on the bed on my left side with pillows to support my head. My roommate mixed some electrolyte water for me and told me to drink it in small sips over the course of an hour. It tasted absolutely disgusting, but I forced myself to drink it just as she told me to. After a few hours of resting and slowly sipping the water, I was feeling mostly back to normal, although the hotel room was still unpleasantly hot.

Wednesday, July 19th, 2023

By morning, I felt perfectly back to normal. We ate breakfast in our hotel in Thessaloniki and then we climbed in the bus and began our journey back to Athens, with several stops at sites and museums along the way. Our first stop of the day was at Dion, which is an ancient sanctuary of Zeus at the base of Mount Olympos. There, Glenn gave us about an hour or so to walk around and explore the site on our own.

The first thing I went to see was the ancient theater. The theater that exists today dates to the Hellenistic Era, but an earlier theater stood on the same site in the Classical Period. Some speculate that Euripides’s tragedy The Bacchae might have been first performed here for King Archelaos I of Makedonia before it was performed in Athens, but this is far from certain. The theater had wooden benches in antiquity, but the original benches rotted away long ago and the benches that are there today are a modern restoration.

ABOVE: View of the ancient theater at Dion, which may be where Euripides’s Bacchae was first performed, with Mount Olympos towering in the background

ABOVE: A different view of the ancient theater at Dion

ABOVE: Orchestra of the ancient theater at Dion

After that, I went back into the wooded part of the sanctuary, following along the paths through the trees. In all honesty, I think that Dion was one of the most beautiful places we visited during the trip, not so much because of the ruins there, but rather because of the natural landscape. Mount Olympos towers above the whole site as a perpetual reminder of just how close it is to the traditional home of the Olympian gods.

Most of Greece is extremely dry during the summer and receives extremely little rainfall. As a result, at most of the places we went, the grass was brown and dead and only plants that are adapted to dry conditions flourished. Dion, however, has a low elevation and generally receives significantly greater rainfall than the rest of Greece. As a result of these factors, the majority of the site is a lush, marshy woodland full of tall, shady trees and grass that is actually green, even during the summer! It was by far the greenest place we saw in the whole trip.

Because we happened to be there on a beautiful, sunny morning, the sunlight shone through the trees and on the grass. The smell of the morning woods filled the air. The place felt alive in a way that most of Greece did not.

ABOVE: View of the wooded swamp at Dion

ABOVE: View of a wooded trail

I followed the trail to the Sanctuary of Demeter, which is the oldest of the sanctuaries at the site and perhaps the oldest surviving sanctuary in northern Greece as a whole. The earliest buildings in the sanctuary were a pair of temples to Demeter and Kore constructed in the late sixth century BCE with plans resembling Mycenaean megara (i.e., great halls).

In the fourth century BCE, these were demolished and replaced with two Doric temples with a stoa to the west. The Greeks worshipped not only Demeter and Kore here, but also Baubo and Aphrodite. The sanctuary remained in use until as late as the fourth century CE.

ABOVE: Ruins at the Sanctuary of Demeter

ABOVE: Other side of the Sanctuary of Demeter at Dion

Next, I went to the Temple of Zeus Hypsistos or Zeus the Highest, which was built in the Hellenistic Period and consisted of a single temple surrounded by stoas. Astoundingly, archaeologists found the ancient marble cult statues of Zeus and Hera that once stood in the naos of this temple, both dating to the Roman period, almost fully intact.

ABOVE: Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos at Dion

ABOVE: Carvings of armor and shields at Dion

ABOVE: View of Mount Olympos over the ruins of Dion

Lastly, I managed to find my way back to the Sanctuary of Isis, which was built in the second century CE, making it the latest of the sanctuaries at the site to be built. It was rather difficult to find the right path to get to the sanctuary, since it lies on the opposite side of the sacred Baphyras stream from the majority of the site and, as far as I am aware, there is only one crossing point for the stream, which is kind of hidden. Eventually, though, I did manage to find it.

ABOVE: Path leading to the Sanctuary of Isis at Dion

When I reached the Sanctuary of Isis, I found that the whole sanctuary was flooded, so that the columns and statues were sticking up out of a marshy bog. Honestly, it was quite scenic, but the extent of the water made me concerned about the preservation of the site, since I know that water penetration can be harmful to archaeological remains. Thankfully at least, all the statues at the site of the temple are modern copies; the ancient originals are all safely preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Dion.

ABOVE: View of the Sanctuary of Isis from where the trail lets out

ABOVE: View of columns at the Temple of Isis sticking up out of the bog

ABOVE: Modern copy of the cult statue of Isis sticking up out of the water

ABOVE: View of the Sanctuary of Isis from the entrance

There were very few other people at Dion aside from us for the majority of the time we were there, which is not surprising, considering that it is not a very well-known site and it is far away from all the major cities in Greece. As we were leaving, though, we saw several absolutely massive tour groups arriving at the entrance to the site, so it seems that it can get quite crowded there at certain times on certain days.

After exploring the archaeological site, the bus took us to the Archaiotheke, where we saw the enormous floor mosaic from the House of Dionysos depicting the god Dionysos and his thiasos.

ABOVE: The Dionysos mosaic from the House of Dionysos at Dion in display in the Archaiotheke

After that, we went to the Archaeological Museum of Dion, where we saw the original cult statues of Zeus and Hera that archaeologists found in the Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos, as well as the original cult statue of Isis that they found in her sanctuary.

ABOVE: Original marble cult statue of Zeus Hypsistos from the Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos, dating to the Roman period

ABOVE: Marble cult statue of Hera from the Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos

ABOVE: Original marble statue of Isis from the Sanctuary of Isis, safely preserved in the museum

We also saw statues of other deities who were worshipped at Dion in sanctuaries that were primarily dedicated to other deities, including Aphrodite and the Mother of the Gods.

ABOVE: Statue of Aphrodite from the Sanctuary of Isis

ABOVE: Little statuette of the Mother of the Gods from Dion, dating to the Hellenistic Period

In addition to all the statues, one of the most exciting artifacts in the museum’s collection are the remains of a hydraulis or water organ, a kind of ancient Greek pipe organ, which was found in a building opposite the House of Dionysos and dates to the first century BCE. It is the oldest and most complete surviving example of a hydraulis from anywhere in the ancient world.

ABOVE: Remains of the hydraulis (water organ) of Dion

ABOVE: Fragmentary relief with scenes of daily life in the Greek countryside

After our visit to the archaeological museum, we loaded back onto the bus and rode south to the major port city of Volos. There, we went to the Archaeological Museum of Volos, which is a lovely Neoclassical building.

ABOVE: Photo I took of the exterior of the Archaeological Museum of Volos

Inside the museum, one of my fellow students gave a site report about the museum’s large collection of painted grave stelae dating to the third and second centuries BCE that were found at Demetrias. I found these stelae deeply fascinating for several reasons.

One reason is because their painted surfaces preserve some of the extremely few surviving examples of ancient Greek paintings. These paintings demonstrate that painters living in Greece in the Hellenistic Era were highly accomplished at painting and had mastered techniques such as shading.

ABOVE: Grave stele of a man named Menelaos, depicting the deceased reclining on a couch, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

In addition, many of the stelae belong to women and depict scenes of female domestic life. Admittedly, it is likely that male artists painted most or all of these scenes and that they accordingly tell us more about how men imagined and constructed female domestic life rather than what life was actually like for real women. Nonetheless, they offer an interesting source for the study of women and gender in ancient world.

ABOVE: Grave stele of a woman named Choirile, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

ABOVE: Grave stele of a woman named Archidike, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

A third reason why I found the stelae fascinating is because many of them belong to people whose geographic or ethnic origins appear to lie outside Greece and the Aegean. For instance, one stele belongs to a man named Ouaphres, whose name is of Egyptian origin and who is described as a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Another stele, belongs to a man named Iason (which is a Greek name) and records that he was born in Ashkelon, a city located on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant in what is now Israel.

These stelae serve as a valuable reminder that Greece in the third and second centuries BCE was not culturally or ethnically homogeneous; people who were living in Greece in this period came from diverse ethnic and geographic backgrounds. They are also a reminder that Greek ethnicity is a lot more complicated than many people today have imagined.

ABOVE: Painted grave stele of Ouaphres, a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis with an Egyptian name, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

ABOVE: Grave stele of Iason, a man with a Greek name who was born in Ashkelon in what is now Israel, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

In addition to these grave stelae, the museum also holds many other artifacts, including a significant collection of pieces dating to the Mycenaean period.

ABOVE: Marble head of the goddess Aphrodite Pasikrata, found at Demetrias, dating to the third or second century BCE

ABOVE: Mycenaean clay figure of a bull dating to the fourteenth century BCE, found in a house shrine at Dimini

ABOVE: Mycenaean psi figurines and pottery

After exploring the museum, we loaded back onto the bus and continued our journey south. At some point, we stopped someplace for a quick lunch. Our final stop of the day was at Thermopylai, which is remembered as the location where, in summer 480 BCE, the Achaemenid Persians won a decisive victory against the allied Greek forces led by the Spartan king Leonidas I in the Battle of Thermopylai.

As a result of this victory, the Achaemenid forces were able to advance south through Boiotia and Attica. The Athenians were forced to evacuate their women, children, and elderly to the city of Troizen in the northeastern Peloponnesos. The Achaemenid forces sacked Athens and destroyed all the buildings that stood on the Akropolis at that time. The allied Greek city-states, however, managed to win a decisive naval victory in the Battle of Salamis in around September that same year, which turned the tide of the war in the Greeks’ favor.

The Spartans managed to turn their defeat at Thermopylai into a propaganda victory by spinning a narrative of their supposed extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice for the allied Greek cause. As a result, the Battle of Thermopylai became central to what the French scholar of ancient history Francois Ollier famously termed in 1933 le mirage spartiate (“the Spartan mirage”): the distorted, ahistorical perceptions of Sparta that existed among non-Spartans in antiquity and continue to flourish today.

While we were at Thermopylai, one of my fellow students gave a report about the famous battle that happened there in 480 BCE and Glenn gave us some time to look around and take photos. We did not stay there very long, though, since there is honestly not much to see there. The famous narrow pass that existed in antiquity doesn’t even exist anymore, since the sea has moved back considerably since ancient times. In antiquity, the sea came all the way up to where the road is now, leaving only a narrow pass between the hills and the sea. Today, by contrast, a broad plain separates the site of the battle from the sea and one can barely even see the sea on the distance.

ABOVE: View of the hill where archaeological evidence suggests that Leonidas I and his men made their last stand

ABOVE: Modern plaque atop the hill inscribed with a poem preserved through quotation by the Greek historian Herodotos commemorating the Spartans who died at Thermopylai in 480 BCE

ABOVE: View of Thermopylai from the hill where Leonidas and his men made their last stand. In antiquity, the sea came up to about where the road is now.

ABOVE: Me standing in front of a modern monumental statue of a Spartan warrior set up to commemorate the Spartans who died at Thermopylai in 480 BCE

By the time we left Thermopylai, we were already well behind the schedule laid out on the itinerary. Glenn was very eager to get back to the school as soon as possible because he was supposed to go to his friend’s birthday dinner in Athens that evening. Unfortunately, when we got to Athens, the bus driver didn’t know his way around and didn’t know where the school was, so we ended up spending at least a good hour lost driving around in Athens, during which time we found ourselves going in the opposite direction of the school for several long stretches.

By this point, we had spent the vast majority of the day on the bus, including roughly the past three or four hours continuously. As a result, everyone was growing restless. Some of the other students were so antsy that they started passing around bottles of wine that they had saved in their bags to take the edge off, but I did not partake in any alcohol consumption.

Our itinerary said that we were supposed to arrive back at the school at 6:30 p.m., but, in reality, we didn’t arrive back at the school until around 10:30 p.m. We ate a late dinner at Loring Hall. Because we arrived back at the school so late, Glenn missed his friend’s birthday dinner, which made him very upset. He told us: “You will never see that bus driver again.” (By this, of course, he meant that we would be getting a different bus driver for all future excursions, but I must confess that the way he phrased it made it sound somewhat more sinister.)

Thursday, July 20th, 2023

Because this was our first day back in Athens after our long trip through central and northern Greece, we had a relatively light schedule for this day. We only had one item on the itinerary, which was a trip to the Numismatic Museum in Athens. The museum is housed in the Iliou Melathron or “Palace of Ilion,” which was designed by the German architect Ernst Ziller and constructed between 1878 and 1880 as a private luxury mansion for the ultrawealthy German businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who is better known for his excavations at Troy and Mycenae.

I decided not to go to the Numismatic Museum because, after the long northern trip, I wanted one day free to myself and I knew this was the only day when we had only one item on the itinerary. It was also over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit outside in Athens this day and I didn’t feel like walking to the museum in that heat. I also knew that I needed to finish my second site report, which I was supposed to give the next day about the Temple of Aphaia on Aigina.

Part of me regrets the fact that I skipped out on the Numismatic Museum, especially since it is housed in such a beautiful, historic building, but part of me is also glad that I took the day to relax and finish my site report. I definitely want to go back to Athens someday and I hope that, when I go back, I will get to the see the museum.

In my next post, which will be the last in this series, I will discuss, among other things, our trip to Aigina, during which I gave my final site report about the Temple of Aphaia, other events of our final week in Greece, and my return home to the United States.