Sounion

Finally we made our way to Sounion, a site on the south-east tip of the Attic peninsula where there is a temple to Poseidon. It is a very picturesque spot, though extremely windy- that's due to the location on the coast, I think, since all of my friends who went there also reported high winds. Apparently sunset there is quite lovely- my friend Gina has pictures that prove this- but we were there during the middle of the afternoon.
The temple of Sounion! You may notice that this temple is a different color than the temples on the Acropolis- still in the range of white-ish, but not so red or yellow. This temple was made not with Pentelic marble, like the Parthenon was, but was instead made with locally quarried stone. Since this stone had a very low iron content, it did not produce that same hue as it aged.
The view to the west- this is clearly a picturesque spot!
If this picture was considerably larger than it is, you would be able to see something rather exciting on the square column just above the join in the rocks- specifically, you would be able to see Byron's name, which he carved there while visiting the site. Carving one's name into a site is actually a tradition with ancient roots- many of the great monuments of Egypt have the names of Greek sailors carved into them. Sort of like a guestbook, I suppose. They don't let you do that sort of thing nowadays.
And these are the cliffs where Aegeus, the father of Theseus, stood to watch for his son's ship coming back from Crete. I trust that you are all familiar with the story- Theseus told his father that he would put up white sails if he was alive, Theseus forgot and sailed with black sails, Aegeus saw this and, assuming that his son was dead, threw himself off the cliff. That is, according to legend, how the Aegean sea got its name.

Thorikos

For lunch we stopped at Thorikos, a site in Attica that was in use for a long time and for many purposes. Mostly, it is famous for the theater that is there- it's a very old theater, and interesting for several reasons that I will point out in a sec- and for mining equipment- this is, after all, in the region of the Laurion silver mines that were so important in Athenian history. So, this is the theater. Most of the theaters that you can think of from the ancient world- the theater of Dionysus in Athens, or the theater at Epidauros- are round in shape. However, theaters weren't always round, and this one at Thorikos is proof of that.
Now, it may look a bit round, when you only look at the edges. However...

When you look only at the middle, there's no curvature at all. How is that?
That's how- the middle of the theater actually is straight, and there are essentially corners where the theater curves around the orchestra. Once upon a time, most theaters were probably a lot more square than their classical counterparts. This is sort of a transitional phase.

At Thorikos there is also some ancient mining equipment, which I saw and did not photograph, and some Mycenaean burials, which are up on the acropolis which we didn't see.

Brauron

One Saturday, we went for a field trip with my archaeology professor to see a variety of sites in Attica. This trip was originally supposed to happen in October- on the same weekend as the trip to Marathon and Rhamnous, in fact- but because my archaeology professor was ill, we ended up putting it off until a later weekend. The first site that we went to was the site of Brauron, the location of one of the oldest bridges in existence and an important site for the worship of Artemis. That building you can see isn't a temple. It's actually a stoa, and the area to the left is some sort of complex where people probably slept.
The remains of the temple- not too well preserved, unfortunately- are up on this hill, in front of the small church. At this site, young Athenian girls would act as she-bears, running races and performing sacrifices.
There are the foundations of the temple. At some point, our professor let us wander the site, which meant that Maddie and Kyrie decided that it was time to climb rocks. Or something.
Also present at the site of Brauron was a cult to Iphigenia (you might remember her- the daughter of Agamemnon who may or may not have been sacrificed so he could go to Troy?) If you believe that she didn't die (Artemis saved her at the last minute), there is a story that she ended up in the region of the Black Sea and was involved with bringing a wooden cult statue of Artemis back to Greece. (The source for this, by the way, would be Euripides' play Iphigenia at Aulis.) The picture below shows the area where the heroon might have been- there was clearly a small shrine there.

E?

Then we went to the Delphi Archaeological Museum, which is another one of those museums where every room is filled with priceless cultural artifacts. This, for example, is the charioteer of Delphi. You may well have seen pictures of this statue before- it's quite famous. The French found it after the earthquake of the late 1890s, because he had been buried before that. It is made of bronze, and you can tell from the style (the facial features, the fact that he is clothed, etc.) that it is from the early classical period.
This inscription is really really cool, my music friends! Can you see how there are lines of text, and the occasional letters between those lines of text? Yes? Those are notations of music of some sort. What they actually mean in turns of tune, I am not entirely sure- I'm not, by any means, an expert on ancient musical notation- but it's pretty cool. It's like ancient sheet music! Only on rocks.
This is the omphalos! I did say that Delphi was the center of the universe, right? This is the stone that marks the center of the center of the universe.

To my science friends- no, you aren't allowed to say anything. If I choose to believe that Delphi is the center of the universe, in spite of a semester of astronomy, nothing you say is going to dissuade me. NOTHING.
This is a part of the pediment sculpture of the treasury of the Athenians. I'm not entirely sure if we were supposed to be in this room- there were ropes blocking off the entryways, but the guard let us in happily enough when we said that we were archaeology students. It depicts one of the labors of Theseus- he's killing an Amazon woman in this part. According to my archaeology professor, he has also just realized that he loves this person. I think that this is indicative of a somewhat dysfunctional relationship. There are lots of those in ancient Greek mythology- see "Atreus, House of".
This one is really cool, guys. That face is part of a statue- want to hazard a guess what materials it is made of?

If you guessed gold for the shiny gold metal, good job! The black part, however, is interesting- that's ivory. You might be thinking that black is an awfully interesting color for ivory to be- that's because it was damaged by fire at some point in time. This statue is "chryselephantine"- literally, gold and ivory, though the term also refers to a specific sort of cult statue. At some point in time, this statue (and some others) was buried, leading to this impressive state of preservation. I think we think that this statue is of Artemis, Apollo's twin sister.

ΕΓΓΥΑ ΠΑΡΑ Δ'ΑΤΗ

Delphi was an important site where the god Apollo was worshipped. That picture below is of the temple of Apollo, which is an exciting place because it is where, I believe, the Pythia (that's the priestess who gave oracles at Delphi) would have sat on her tripod, answering people's questions in hexameter verse. Now, the subject of the Pythia and her temple is a very interesting one- some people believe that the priestess did not write verses so much as make a bunch of funny noises that other people interpreted. Some accounts of the temple record a smell there. The question is, does this mean that the air was full of some sort of fumes? Delphi is located on a fault line, and higher than usual amounts of some chemicals, like ethylene, have been found in nearby springs. Was the Pythia hallucinating? Obviously we can't say, but it's interesting to think about.
Me with an inscriptions. This is a late inscription- you can tell because of the style of some of the letters (like the omegas- note how they are written like curly ws, rather than the Ω that you're probably used to seeing.) No, I'm not going to translate it.
The theatre at Delphi! It's a late addition to the site- 4th century BC, I think- but is quite the theater- from this spot on the mountain, you can get a lovely view of the rest of the site. It must have been really neat back in the day, when all of the treasuries were still intact.
The treasury of the Athenians! Reconstructed, clearly- when they excavated it, the French archaeologists found enough of this treasury that they could put it back together. The friezes from the building are inside the archaeological museum at Delphi, and depict the labors of Theseus, an important Athenian hero. At the treasury, the Athenians would have displayed war trophies- for example, the arms captured from the Persians during the Persian Wars. The road up to the temple of Apollo was lined with treasuries like this from different cities- near the Tholos, there is a treasury from the city which is modern day Marseilles.
Looking back over the nearby mountains!

ΜΗΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ

The tholos again! The original building had a bunch of columns, but only three of them have been restored. According to wikipedia, a source that I reference far too often, this is the most photographed building at the site.

Well, add me to the list of photographers, ok? It's cool looking.
After that we went to the modern city of Delphi, which was a very exciting place to spend time. Really. There are about three roads, it was cold, and we had nothing to do. So, we first checked into our hotel, which, as we discovered, had a very nice view.


And then we discovered that Molly and Stefanie were staying in the room right below us, which was very exciting.

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ

So, after we had finished with Hosios Loukas we made our way to Delphi, which, in case you weren't aware, is the center of the universe. It is also the site of the Delphic Oracle, which was, of course, the most important oracle of the ancient Greek world, and is a pretty nifty place in general.

A warning before you start reading these posts- classics nerdiness will be abounding. Trust me. I think it is physically impossible to go to Delphi and not be a bit nerdy. (Or is it? Perhaps this problem is unique to me.) The site of Delphi is located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, and is in general a very pretty place. Once upon a time, the area of the site was occupied by a village, Kastri. This is a common problem in Greece- many valuable archaeological sites have been built over in later times, and it is difficult to excavate if the current inhabitants refuse to move away. (There are many areas of Athens that haven't been excavated either.) Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Kastri, but fortunately for all of the archaeologists involved (and, I should add, anyone who has visited the site) there was an earthquake in the late 1800s that encouraged the villagers to move away and made the excavations possible.
This may not be Delphi...
But this is! See those columns over to the left side of the picture? That's the temple of Apollo! And that white building in the middle of the picture? That's the treasury of the Athenians! I may have been dancing in a giddy fashion at this point of the trip. Whereby "may have" I mean "definitely was." Some of the less classics-enthused people on my bus may have been alarmed. My professors may have been looking on in amusement. My friends were too busy dancing to much care.
This is Delphi too! That's the tholos, which is a round building at the site of the Temple of Athena Pronaia. Our first day on the site (we spent a whole weekend there) we only visited the lower site, which means that we spent a lot of time looking at the tholos. It is a very recognizable building, in part because it is round. (There aren't a whole lot of round buildings from the ancient world, and generally the ones that exist are called the tholos. I have visited three while here- the tholos in the agora (subject of my exciting presentation, "The tholos and the monument of the eponymous heroes") the tholos at Epidauros and this one here.)

Hosios Loukas

On the way to Delphi we made a stop at Hosios Loukas, a monastery located in Boeotia. This monastery, founded in the tenth century, is one of the many UNESCO world heritage sites located in Greece. The monastery was founded by St. Loukas, a man who predicted the conquest of Crete and whose body, still at the monastery, was reputed to heal people. This is, I believe, how the monastery funded its buildings, which are architecturally really interesting, and the decoration of these buildings, which was well known throughout the Byzantine world.

The monastery was undergoing some restoration work while I was there, so I unfortunately don't have pictures of the outside of the churches. There are two at Hosios Loukas, one from the 10th century (the Theotokos) and one from the early 11th century (the Katholikon.) This is a picture of some arches, which were not covered with scaffolding.
For this next picture- I would like to make it known that I do not generally take pictures of the insides of churches. Obviously, one does not want to take pictures with flash, since that could damage the paintings and that would be a bad idea. Also, I'm under the impression that in many cases this is considered rather rude, and I generally like to respect other people's religions. However, in this case, we were told that it was ok.

This is the inside of the Katholikon, and I would like to direct your attention towards the ceiling, or, specifically, the way that the dome is held up. The Katholikon is the earliest extant example of a kind of church called a "domed octagon" church, which means, essentially, that the naos has eight piers and that it has a dome. There are some architectural gymnastics that must be done to build a dome on top of an octagon, and you can see some of those in this picture. Also note the decorations- the insides of Greek Orthodox Churches are beautiful.

Next- off to Delphi!

Nisaki

So, off of Ioannina there lies an island which is called "Nisaki." You might be thinking that this is a nice name. I mostly think it's funny that they named the island "little island." I mean, it's a bit literal, isn't it? I feel like this isn't a good naming pattern to follow. Next thing you know, they'll be naming mountain ranges "large mountain range" and "medium sized mountain range" and lakes "big lake" and "little lake". And then where will we be?

Anyways, Catharine and I went there via ferry, and spent a day wandering and buying souvenirs and having picnic lunches. It was quite nice and idyllic. Nisaki contains many, many monasteries. They were generally very pretty and very closed, so we didn't actually go in to any of them, but they were nice from the outside.

Painting from the outside of a church. Considering the state of repair that it is in, I'm going to assume that this church hasn't been in use in the recent past- most of the churches I have been to are kept in very good repair.

The village on Nisi! It was a nice place, though very small. Ioannina is generally known for its silver production, and the island is full of very many cheap silver shops. This was nice, in that I bought many Christmas gifts while here, but also vaguely irritating, since you get attacked by anxious shop owners trying to convince you to look at their wares. Seriously. To get away, it is sometimes necessary to run a bit. Or feign total incomprehension.

On the plus side, I've been told that my face of total incomprehension has improved greatly over the past three months. I'm now able to not react at all when people speak to me, even in languages that I actually understand.

Since Catharine and I were feeling like stretching our legs, we took the path that goes around the outside of the island and enjoyed the nice views of the lake and the mountains. It was also very windy on this day.

This is inside the enclosure where Ali Pasha was killed. Next to this building is the building where he was actually shot, which is now a museum. Apparently they still have the bullet riddled wooden floors and stuff. Unfortunately, this museum was closed, which was tragic. Perhaps because it was off-season.

And that, my friends, is the end of my fall break. After this, we returned to Athens, which was nice, since by this time Catharine and I were willing to go back to our apartments, sleep in real beds, and shower. Also to change clothes. And stop living out of backpacks. And not eat gyros for a really long time. It was an adventure, and I'm glad we stayed in Greece.

In Which We Leave Ioannina to go to Metsovo

So, after our first day in Ioannina, Catharine and I decided to make a trip to Metsovo, a town in the Pindos mountains that is pretty and known for its cheeses and its interesting festivals, which take place during the summer and therefore went unseen by us. I could say that we went because we had heard that it was nice, or because we had fallen in love with the KTEL system and wanted to spend another three hours with it, or because we had grown tired of watching "The Young and the Restless" with Greek subtitles on the tv. (It was for one evening, ok? Such things happen.)

But the real reason, I have to say, was our general lingustic nerdiness. Metsovo is the capital of Vlach culture in Greece. The Vlachs are a linguistic minority (they mostly see themselves as ethnically Greek) who speak a language called Aromanian (also known as Vlach), which is a close relative of Latin. Cool, isn't it? To be fair, Metsovo is also really pretty, and since the Vlach speaking population is quite small, we knew that the chances of us hearing any spoken Vlach were small. It's in the Pindos mountains, which are very nice mountains, and when we were there the leaves were turning colors.

Fog rolling over the Pindos mountains!

The village of Metsovo. It's a lovely place in part because it had some benefactors who donated a lot of money there- specifically George Averoff.

It was Halloween when we were in Metsovo, but they don't do Halloween here at all. They were having some sort of celebration that involved footraces, though Catharine and I couldn't figure out exactly what it was. This was ok, we watched it while eating a pleasant lunch at a nice restaurant that my guidebook reccomended and then later while we were waiting for the bus.