Getting Lost... Getting Found

Getting Lost... Getting Found

This past week was the first week of classes, and also the first week of my study abroad experience for me to explore on my own, without the aid of the CYA/DIKEMES administration. Last Sunday, I was walking through Plaka and stumbled my way into the Athenian Flee Market in Monastriaki. Totally by accident, I found myself in a true gem of Athens. Everywhere people were selling everything from old keys and books, to chairs, rugs, and icons. The flee markets stretched through streets, alleys, and squares. I spent the entire market walking from one stall to another trying to understand some of the Greek, watching the Athenian people haggle with prices, and seeing the ancient streets of Athens come alive with their makeshift agora.  While walking through the flee market, I proceeded to get lost among the twisting streets of Monastiraki. Instead of attempting to retrace my steps, I comforted myself with the theory that you do not truly know a city until you get lost and then find yourself again. I continued to wander the streets and the flee market until I came out in Syntagma Square, the Parliament building standing as the backdrop. I had missed the Sunday morning changing of the guards, so that was placed on the list for another Athenian Sunday. 

This week was also the first week of classes, allowing me to begin studying the subjects that I love in a setting that encourages the interaction with the physical evidence of my studies. I am taking four classes this semester. Two classes on Monday/Wednesday - Modern Greek and History of Ancient Macedonia - as well as two classes on Tuesday/Thursday - Sports, Games, and Spectacles in the Ancient World and Byzantine Art and Architecture. I am so excited for all of my classes, some of them - like Modern Greek - I would never have been able to take at Tufts University, and some of them - such as Sports, Games, and Spectacles - are offered at Tufts, but with CYA, we are not only being taught by professors at the top of their respective fields, but also get to go on field trips that enhance the class - Olympia, Pella, Thessaloniki, and Ravenna!

On Wednesday after my classes for the day were finished, I went to the Post Office in Syntagma, in order to buy international stamps to send a postcard. I wasn't sure how Greek post offices work, especially at a larger branch, so I approached a man waiting and asked him how to go about getting a letter sent. After helping me get a number, we proceeded to have a multilingual conversation, with Nikos asking me questions in English, and me answering in (botched) Greek. We had just practiced this type of conversation about where we were from and where/what we were studying in Greek class that day. It was so rewarding to be able to practice my Greek and converse with Nikos in his own language without too much of a language barrier. Nikos even gave me his telephone number before he left the Post Office and told me to call if I ever had an emergency while in Greece.

Saturday, I took a day trip to Epidauros in order to see the Sanctuary and Theater of Asklepios. Last semester, at Tufts, I took a Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine class, where we spent a lot of time learning about the cult site of Asklepios at Epidaurus and the role of divine healing on the development of the medical techne of the time. I got up around six a.m. to take the metro (first time by myself!!) to a suburb of Athens in order to get on a KTEL bus to Kranidi, which had a stop near the sanctuary. After a little panicking about missed stops, and help from a very nice bus driver and some translating Greek passengers, I got off the bus a kilometer from the Sanctuary. I found it very adventurous of me to be walking off a bus and proceeding to walk a kilometer on a deserted road, surrounded by olive farms, in order to reach the sanctuary. On a side note: I really love the way that the olive trees  make the mountains look silver, as if they are gilded.

Road Sign to the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus

 Once at the Sanctuary, I started at the Theater of Asklepios, where theater performances took place in order to entertain the invalids seeking divine healing from Asklepios. I have seen the theater complex at Pompeii but the shear size of the Theater of Epidaurus was breath-taking (literally, I actually gasped when I came through the trees and first saw the structure). The acoustics were also amazing and I am in awe of the technical level of engineering required to not only carve out the hill formation and construct this theater, but also calculate the precise angle and size required in order to create the acoustics. I could clearly hear the tourists speaking from the ground all the way at the top of the structure as if they were sitting next to me. In the following picture a small stone is visible in the center of the sand in the circular platform on the ground level of the theater. When you stand on that circle, your projection is the strongest, but even cooler is that if you tap your foot on that stone circle, the tapping sound reverberates back at you amplified.

Top Down View of the Temple of Epidaurus

Ground Level View of the Theater of Epidaurus

After spending time at the theater, I spent two hours at the archeological site of the Sanctuary of Asklepios. Here I was followed, and at times guided, by a stray dog. Dogs were sacred to the god Asklepios, to whom the theater and sanctuary were dedicated, and were often kept at the sanctuary for healing purposes, as the Greeks believed that ailments could be cured by the lick of a dog's tongue. Being guided through the site by the dog, felt as if Asklepios himself was guiding my tour through the hostel, baths, and temple ruins.

Dog of Asklepios

The remains of the Propylon among the ruins of the Sanctuary of Asklepios

Visitors of the site approach the ruins of the Sanctuary in the reverse direction from the traditional procession of supplicants during antiquity. Having learned about the proper steps needed to be admitted into the Sanctuary complex for healing, I wanted to walk through the Propylaia, past the Cistern, and up through the sacred way. The picture below shows the remains of the Propylaia, which would have mirrored the appearance of a temple while the site was getting used. After crossing the Propylaia, I stopped at the cistern and used my water bottle to wash my hands, in the same manner supplicants two thousand years ago would have washed in order to achieve physical purification before entering the Sanctuary.

Propylaia of the Sanctuary

Cistern

I then proceeded to the Abaton, which is where the invalids would have slept in order to receive, in their dreams, healing from the god, either in the form of Asklepios himself, a dog, or the elaphae longissima longissima, the sacred snake of Asklepios (which I sadly did not see). Having read the stelae containing written accounts of the miracles believed to have been performed here in the abaton, it was surreal to be in this place of healing. In fact, I laid down on the marble benches against the back wall in order to partake in the process led by thousands of others before me.

Abaton of Epidaurus

Due to the fact that the Tholos Temple, a round temple in which the sacred snakes of Asklepios are believed to have been kept, is being refurbished and reconstructed, I was able to see the methods that archeologists are using in order to reconstruct these monuments as precisely as possible while maintaining the integrity of the ruins. As seen below, the archeologists are using an exacting tool, a modified version of the tool used by the Romans in order to make exact replicas of Greek Bronze sculptures in marble, in order to etch into marble. The archeological remains are then placed within these marble pieces, and the Tholos Temple will then be reconstructed so that the public will be able to view what the original temple would have looked at while still seeing the remains in their correct orientation within the ruin. Seeing this method of archeology has made me think about reconstructive archeology as a career path, which I had never considered before.

Reconstructive Archeology

Along with the Theater and the Archeological Site of the Sanctuary, the site also houses a museum which contains the sculptures and material finds of the archeological site. For me, the most exciting material objects on display were the copper-alloy medical instruments: scalpels, forceps, tweezers, cautery irons, and probes. The evidence of these instruments at the Sanctuary of Asklepios prove that the site served as more than a location for divine miracles but also as a site where actual medicine was practiced.

Tweezers, Scalpels, and Cautery Irons from Epidaurus

Medical Probes

Epidaurus was an incredible day trip out of Athens. The trip gave me confidence to travel alone, take public transportation, and to trust the people of Greece to help get me where I am looking to go. I am so thankful that I was able to see this ancient marvel. Part of the beauty of Athens rests in the fact that the city is a testament to the Athenian people throughout history, with Classical, Byzantine, Early Modern, and Contemporary architecture right next to each other. Epidaurus, however, was a strong break from the charm of Athens. Situated in a forest of  whispering trees in a valley between silver mountains, the site almost serves as a small asylum for Ancient Greece, untouched by the modern era except for the inevitable passage of time and monumental collapse. And if one squints (really hard) it is almost possible  to see the line of supplicants making merry while waiting to be healed by the god.

Statue of Asklepios