Stones, stones and stones

Quote of the week

There is life in a stone. Any stone that sits in a field or lies on a beach takes on the memory of that place. You can feel that stones have witnessed so many things.

Andy Goldsworthy

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Hello,

The temperature here in Greece has gone slightly down to a more pleasant level. After our lazy days in the hammock, we were gathering up some energy to visit a few classical sites.

OIympia

Olympia is famous for being the origin place of the Olympic Games, which took place here from the 8th century BC, continuing up until the 4th century AD. It was also a religious sanctuary dedicated to Zeus, even if other gods were also worshipped. Visitors came to watch the games from all over the Greek world.

Today it is difficult to really grasp the grandness of what the site looked like in ancient times. It is said to have had 760 significant buildings, of which many survives, although as ruins due to several earthquakes. The stadium is still visible. The athletes entered it by an archway and a vaulted corridor. The archway you can still go through today to come out on the stadium. Going around in the heat, I was thinking of all the athletes competing, while I could hardly slowly walk around the place.

The gateway to the arena

Part of the stadium

Pausanias, a Greek geographer and traveller during the 2nd century AD, who visited the place said there were over 70 temples in totals, as well as treasuries, altars, statues and various structure dedicated to deities. The most glorious of them all was the statue of Zeus, one of the Severn Wonders of the Ancient World. Pausanias describes it: “the statue was crowned with a sculpted wreath of olive sprays and wore a gilded robe made from glass and carved with animals and lilies. Its right hand held a small chryselephantine statue of crowned Nike, goddess of victory; its left a scepter inlaid with many metals, supporting an eagle. The throne featured painted figures and wrought images and was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory.” Obviously, a glorious statue. Unfortunately, lost some time during the first centuries AD, although how is open to different historical accounts.

The only structure dedicated to a human is the Philippeion, an Ionic circular memorial in limestone and marble. It contained chryselephantine (ivory and god) statues of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, together with other deities. It was erected in celebration of Philip’s victory at the battle of Chaperone (338 BC). This is one of the better preserved temples.

The Philippeion

The museum holds the remarkable pieces of sculptures and friezes, skilfully displayed from the temple of Zeus. It includes a moulded frieze of the Twelve Labours of Hercules. There is also the famous sculpture head of Hera and the magnificent Hermes of Praxiteles, as well as Nike of Paionios, which was 10 m high originally.

Nike of Paionios

Hermes of Praxiteles

Bassae

I visited Peloponnese thirty years ago when I lived in Athens. However, I cannot remember that it was so mountainous. We really learned that when on our way to visit the temple of Bassae, situated high up on a mountain top. Small serpentine roads where you can hardly meet another car, winding itself up the mountain.

A grand temple

Once on the top of the mountain we could visit the 5th century BC Temple of Apollo Epikourios. It’s situated on 1131 m (3.710 feet), and is one of the best preserved Classical monuments in Greece. Due to the condition of the temple it is dressed in a gigantic marquee during the complicated restorations. The temple is almost complete in pillars, and standing as it once did. However, due to time, wear and tear, and possibly, some fault in the construction, they have to move and stabilise all the pillars. A Hercules work if any. The structures are impressing and a video film shows the work being done. Many of the metopes (marble frieze sculptures) were removed in the beginning of the 19th century, and are now at display i the British Museum in London.

Nestor’s Palace

Nestor is one of the characters in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. He fought on the side of the Achaeans (the Greeks) in the Trojan war. He is at the time elderly and does not participate as a warrior, but more as an advisor. He gives his advice to people whether they want it or not. Sometimes they are good, sometimes not.

The Throne room

Nestor is the king of Pylos and lived in what is known as Nestor’s palace built during the Mycenaean era. There is no evidence though that he was an actual person. Mythology states that he was married to Eurydice or Anaxibia, and had numerous children. He also participated in the famous Argonautic expedition in order to help Jason retrieve the Golden Flees. Other deeds are also known to be connected to him. After the end of the Trojan war he left for Pylos and did not stay on to plunder the city.

The palace is situated on a hill on the west coast of Peloponnese, overlooking fertile valleys and the Navarino Bay and Ionian sea. It was discovered in 1939, but excavations did not start until after World War II. The most interesting find is a group of 1200 clay tablets, inscribed in Linear B language. They are very similar to tablets found in Knossos, Crete, which proves that there was a connection between the Mycenaean and Minoan civilisations. The language, which is the oldest attested form of the Greek language, was only decoded in 1952.

The storage for the olive jars

The palace area is covered by a 2300-square-metre steel structure, with elevated walkways above it. It gives another dimension to look at the ruins from above. Information signs, with drawings on how the palace looked, make you visualise the structure. In some places they have left jars, cups and part of the storage of olive oil, half hidden in the ground, which helps you understand how it looked in those days.

In the Odyssey there is a scen when Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, has come to Nestor to inquire what happened to his father. At the palace “Telemachus is given a bath by Nestor’s “youngest grown daughter, beautiful Polycaste”, and emerges anointed with oil, “with the body of an immortal”. Imagine what the archeologists thought when a bathtub was found on the palace grounds. Real or not, it is a fantastic story.

The bathtub where Telemachus took a bath?

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On the blog this week

Believe it or not, but I did post a couple of posts on my blog.

Circe by Madeline Miller - the best fiction book I have read this year.

September Wrap-up - books read in September

See you next week.