Chapter 26

Ten Great Places to Visit

In This Chapter

Touring museums

Walking the sites

Searching online

Sampling the art and culture

Reading books is all well and good, but if you really want to experience some ancient Greek culture up close and personal, this chapter suggests ten places that are full of it. Visit these locations and you’re sure to feel a real connection to the world of 2,500 years ago.

Of course, hundreds of other interesting sites with connections to the ancient Greeks exist, but you have to start somewhere. These just happen to be some of my favourites.

The British Museum, London

The British Museum has a superb collection of ancient Greek objects and artefacts in some really big galleries. The museum houses a great collection of vases and sculpture from all ancient Greece’s artistic periods (see Chapter 17), plus many Roman copies of famous Greek originals. The fantastic Nereid Monument, transplanted from Asia Minor, gives a good idea of the scale of some of the building work that went on during ancient Greece’s prime (refer to Chapter 18). You can also see some wonderful everyday objects that allow an insight into what normal Greek lives were like.

Best of all are the so-called ‘Elgin Marbles’, the Parthenon sculptures that were taken from Athens by a British adventurer, Lord Elgin, in around 1800. These are great examples of the metopes, frieze, and the pediment sculpture, which I discuss in Chapter 18. The Elgin Marbles are all presented with an excellent display that features reconstructions of what the original temple looked like and how it was built. In recent years there have been attempts to force the British Government to return the sculptures to Athens – so go and see them while they’re still in the British Museum!

The Acropolis, Athens

Of course, Athens is loaded with things to see, but the Acropolis really is a standout. The Parthenon, the largest temple on the site, is amazingly impressive, but the other temples – such as Athena Nike and the Erectheum – are also stunning.

Just next to the Acropolis is the Theatre of Dionysus (described in Chapter 16). The current theatre is actually a Roman rebuild of the Greek original, but it still gives you a sense of the size of the performances that used to take place.

And at a really basic level, simply walking along the streets and through the gathering spaces where Pericles, Socrates, and all the others once trod is fantastic! Local guides are available to take you round but a good guidebook will suffice. Plan to spend most of the day there and get there early – the Acropolis can get appallingly hot around lunchtime, a good time to get something to eat!

Knossos, Crete

The site of Knossos on the island of Crete feels very different to the other sites I list in this chapter. As I say in Chapter 2, the Minoans, while technically Greek, were very different to the ancient Greeks who followed them.

Knossos was discovered and controversially restored and rebuilt by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, but the site that remains is undeniably impressive. One of the highlights is the superb Royal Palace with its beautiful dolphin decorations. Equally interesting are the workrooms in the east wing. You get a real sense of a different, earlier time and age. But be warned, walking around the site in Cretan summer temperatures that can hit over 100 degrees can be hard work!

Crete itself is a fascinating island and worth visiting on its own. It’s an overnight journey on the ferry from the Greek mainland and quite a distance to Knossos once you arrive. A visit needs to be part of a planned trip but it’s well worth the effort.

Delphi

The site of the sanctuary complex at Delphi is amazing. A small town hidden away in the Peloponnese, Delphi is one of the most beautiful places that you can visit, boasting spectacular views from the sanctuary, which is built into the hillside. (Head to Chapter 21 for more on the historical and religious details about this site.)

A lot of buildings still remain at Delphi, including many treasuries and a large portion of the base of the Temple of Apollo. At the very top of the site are the remains of the athletic stadium where the Pythian games (held at Delphi in honour of Apollo) took place. You can also visit an excellent museum that includes a wonderful bronze sculpture of the Delphi charioteer.

Delphi is a little isolated but you can easily book a coach trip from Athens. It’s worth staying over (plenty of hotels are in town) because the sunrise looks spectacular across the valley.

Olympia

Olympia is a famous Greek town that’s well worth a visit. The town has become a bit more touristy than Delphi, but its archaeological site is just as impressive.

The ruins of the Temple of Zeus are still near Olympia, along with the workshop of Pheidias, where this legendary artist constructed the massive statue of the god that was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World (and shown in Chapter 17).

The site gives you a very good idea of what the original Olympic games were like, as well as just how much of an event they were (see Chapter 16). If you’re feeling suitably energetic, you can even run a lap of the stadium – although be careful, I fell over when I did it! Like Delphi you’ll need to book a trip to Olympia (or travel there by public transport) and there are many hotels in town.

A Greek Play

The only way to really get a sense of what the Greek theatre was like is to see a performance of a Greek play. Any play – tragedy or comedy – will do. In addition to professional and regional shows, consider attending a university or community theatre production of these great works. You may even be able to find a production that’s staged outdoors. (Pack a picnic and bring a bottle of wine just like the ancients!)

Greek plays aren’t as action-packed as some modern theatre. In fact, you may be surprised to see how still the performers are (if the play is performed in a traditional manner). On-stage, you also have the opportunity to see the way that the chorus is used to support and comment on the action of the central characters.

Many modern productions update the play to the present or change the setting to somewhere different. But just as with Shakespeare, the modern touches usually still allow the brilliance of the original work to shine through.

Samos or Another Greek Island

If you want to get a sense of Odysseus’s travels in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, visit a Greek island and drink in the atmosphere. The history is great – and the peace and quiet is pretty wonderful too!

It’s difficult to pick a single Greek island to visit because there are hundreds, but I’m recommending Samos because it is the one I most recently visited! The closest Greek island to modern Turkey, Samos was a hive of trade and activity during the heyday of ancient Greece, and the island still has a reasonable amount of archaeology to look at.

More than touring remains, however. Samos and many of the other islands give you a real sense of the independence of these small islands and their distance from elsewhere. You can easily see how men like Herodotus broke new ground by travelling to these areas and sharing their stories with Greeks on the mainland. You can also appreciate how each community grew and developed its own versions of myths and relationships with the gods.

Google Images

This recommendation may seem obvious, but if you want to see more examples of Greek art and architecture, go to the Internet!

A quick search (I like images.google.com) reveals a huge number of photos and drawings. You can very quickly assemble a good library of pictures.

Check out Chapter 17 for an introduction to Greek art and then seek out some more examples of different types of sculpture. Searching under ‘Hellenistic Sculpture’ or ‘Red Figure Vase Painting’ brings up loads of examples, each with its own story. The world of ancient Greek art is at your fingertips!

The National Gallery, London

The National Gallery may seem like an odd choice of place to visit for ancient Greek culture, but if you want to see how the Greeks influenced the people who followed them, then an art gallery is a good place to start.

Many Renaissance paintings feature scenes from Greek mythology based on written sources that were rediscovered during that historical period.

The National Gallery is a good place to start because it features Titian’s fantastic Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23 AD), an amazing, colourful picture that shows the abandoned Ariadne being surprised by Bacchus and his swaggering crew of followers. Look for paintings by Titian, Botticelli, Della Francesca, Veronese, and Rubens – all of whom loved using classical mythology as a source.

All the Renaissance paintings are idealised, but looking at somebody else’s interpretation of the myths is still quite inspiring. Go along and let your imagination run riot! Art For Dummies by Thomas Hoving and Art History For Dummies by Jesse Bryant Wilder offer further insights into the connections between ancient Greek and later artists.

The Agora, Athens

Still relatively well preserved, Athens’s original town centre was the busiest part of the greatest of Ancient Greek cities. If you go, take a classical text with you and sit and read it for a while. The ancient Greeks were having conversations about the same text 2,500 years ago, probably in the same spot! You’ll also be sitting in the place where Plato debated with Socrates; Pericles discussed the Peloponnesian War with his generals; and Alcibiades intrigued and flirted. Their sandalled feet trod the same ground that you’ll be standing on. You can’t get much more Greek than that.

The Agora is in the very centre of modern Athens and is surrounded by modern market stalls. It gives you a sense of the hustle and bustle that must have been part of city life in the days of ancient Greece. Take a walk around and pick up something to eat from one of the street vendors – just as an average Athenian would have done on his way to the assembly 2,500 years ago!