Greece trip, part 3

Pictures won't upload. I'll try and get some up here; in any case, the Facebook pics should be up within the week.

Day 2: Monday, March 23
Olympia, Cangathi, Patras, to Delphi

We woke up to a beautiful view in Olympia. The hotel balcony allowed us to look out over the town and see some of the mountains. The air was clear and fresh, and the breakfast was delicious. We headed out for ancient Olympia around 8:30, so we had quite a bit more sleep than we had in Athens! The admission tickets were shiny and beautiful; I was sure to keep mine, unaware that due to my age it would be the first and the last that I got. As we walked into Olympia, some workers were weedwhacking the grass among the ruins—yet another juxtaposition of ancient and modern! I began to think that this idea could be a huge overarching theme—and later, I was proven right. The ruins were fantastic! First Eugenia showed us the palestra, where the athletes competed in pagratio, boxing; the palestra is surrounded by the stoa (in fact much like the covered walkways of Shorewood). My favorite thing was the Temple of Zeus. The pillars are gigantic! I got a good scale picture of Amy; it takes more than six of her to reach the top of one of the pillars. Many fell during earthquakes, revealing their masterful and clever construction: iron rods are placed in the middle of all the discs to keep them straight and stable. Each disc was huge unto itself; Eugenia mentioned that they would have been floated from Naxos and other islands, where all the marble was located. She also showed us the writing on ancient stone tablets. We got to see where cheaters in the games had to donate a statue inscribed with their name—it served as both a punishment and as a resource booster for Olympia. We had a 60 meter race on the ancient starting line—Kelvin won and I pulled a close second (though Dr. Pappas thought that Kelvin should have been disqualified after watching video footage). Next we saw the Shrine of Hera, where the sacred flame was lit by a mirrored bowl held by her disciples. When we got to the museum, we were able to see a miniature reconstruction of all the buildings in Olympia, which was very cool to see. I regret that I had not seen it before we walked around; it would have made my experience much richer and more imaginative. Inside the museum, we saw the facades of the temple of Zeus. One depicts Apollo and the Centaurs; the other features Oinomaos the lord of horses. I was excited to see the nine Labors of Herakles. We also got to see a picture of what the statue of Olympian Zeus looked like before it was destroyed/stolen/lost. It looks an awful lot like every depiction of Christ that I have ever seen—it was indeed as Eugenia said: “Nothing comes from nothing.”

The big tour de force was Praxiteles’ Hermes holding Dionysos. It was beautiful and perfectly formed, and it reads almost as well from the back as from the front (not from the sides, however). The girls were loath to admit it but I am sure that they loved Hermes’ well-formed buttocks. It has been slightly Romanized by additions to its sculpture. The other thing that I really liked there was the statue of Hadrian. His crest shows Athena crowned by Nikes above the depiction of Romulus and Remus with Lupus; Eugenia explained that this was because he considered himself an Hellenist and admired the Greeks more than his own people. The museum was frankly quite a struggle—Eugenia moved very fast and I naturally wanted to look at everything for hours. But Dr. Pappas wasn’t running no chickenshit outfit; we had a schedule and by God we had to keep it. We (or I, rather) reluctantly left the museum and loaded up.

On the way to Delphi, Dr. Pappas decided to surprise his brother-in-law Andreas by directing Yorgos to stop at his village. We took a detour and ended up in the small village of Cangathi. Andreas’ family dropped everything to open the local restaurant and prepare us a huge meal. For the next 3 hours, we ate, drank, and made merry. We had lamb, zhatziki, feta cheese, homemade olive oil, Greek salad, french fries (of course), chicken, and homemade wine. The wine was excellent, and is in fact the finest of all alcohols, for its taste and combination with food makes its consumption worth its mind-draining effects (truly, I jest; though on a side note, several people thought that I had too much to drink because I was loud, boisterous and funny at lunch—they had thus far met only the dark, reserved intellectual, not the brazen jester; of course I had such a small amount of wine as to make its effects negligible and so I laughed inwardly at their incorrect analysis). It was a fantastic experience—the Greeks have a lot more fun at meals than we ever could, I think. On top of that, Andreas was such a gentlemen, thoughtfully grasping each of the men as we walked by, and accepting no payment from Dr. Pappas. We were truly in good company. We were all sad to leave the beautiful little village and we slyly tipped our friends by hiding coins under plates. Perhaps this was how Odysseus would have welcomed visitors to his table, feasting and entertaining them to their hearts’ content. No time to think of mythology, though—off to Delphi!
We passed through Patras, and over the beautiful boatlike bridge linking the Peloponnese to Attica. Somehow I knew that this bridge was built to resemble Odysseus’ ship; as we passed over the dark water I imagined that vessel scudding over the black sea to Troy by night, for the moment blissfully unaware just as we were. We arrived late in Delphi, and after a cinnamon spaghetti dinner we went out to explore the town and to BUY THINGS! I splurged, quite funny since I spent slightly under three hundred dollars on the whole trip, including food, while some spent nearly one thousand. Here I had a laugh every time we turned the corner: the Hotel Aeolos, Dionysos Shop, Hotel Hermes. I had first noticed this at Myceneae—all of the shops capitalize on the mythology. My favorite was Clytemnaestra Rooms in Myceneae. With a name like that, I think I would have slept in the car! It was a wonderful night on the town; I went to bed excited for my most anticipated stop on the entire trip: the Oracle at Delphi.