Category: greece

the first cemetery of athens

the first cemetery of athens, opened in 1837, was – in its day – the “luxurious” cemetery for the city. many greek and foreign notables are buried there, including the actress melina mercouri; andreas and george papandreou, father-and-son prime ministers; georgios papadopoulos, the dictator during the junta period; heinrich schliemann, the german archaeologist who excavated the city of troy; and the british author t.h. white.

the luxurious graves are, frankly, pretty luxurious.

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i imagine that ancient delphi looked like this at its height, with the treasuries from each city lined up one next to the other displaying their gifts to the temple.

graves of orthodox priests.

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the newer section of the cemetery is more plain and more crowded. also, unlike the older section, the newer section’s headstones usually incorporate photographs somehow, with a mix of modern and older photos.

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there also are a lot of cats.

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of course, this is a working cemetery. in the 90 minutes i was there, i saw two funeral processions, and there were another two waiting to go.

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mykonos: windmills

in the 16th century, the venetians, who occupied mykonos for approximately 300 years, built windmills on the island to mill wheat. mykonos is sometimes referred to as “the island of wind.” given the number of times i had to chase my hat across the parking lot, i can attest to the accuracy of that.

lately, i am a fan of the “one camera, one lens” philosophy, which means no wide angle or zoom lenses. this makes getting all of the windmills into one shot very difficult; hence, i had to go for a more “artistic” approach.

windmills at sunset:

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and at sunrise:

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next: light

mykonos

eventually, we were going to get to mykonos, a blue-and-white symphony of light, as well as a shopping and clubbing mecca.

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next: windmills.

live at the apollo (part 4): corinth

(in which we come to realize that the filter on the lens needs to be replaced.)

the apollo temple at corinth dates from the 6th century b.c. there doesn’t seem to be much history about it on the internet. the columns – of which there were originally six on each end and 15 on each side – are of the doric style: it turns out the corinthian columns, like corinthian leather, aren’t actually from corinth; the design was invented in athens.

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the lechaion road was the main road of ancient corinth. the archaeologist’s rendering shows it to be a thoroughfare worthy of royal processions and parades, but the grandeur is just an echo in today’s condition.

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the museum of the corinth excavations has a beautiful collection of artifacts and also an incredible history. in 1990, thieves overpowered the guards and stole more than 270 greek and roman antiquities that had been excavated by the american school of classical studies in athens, which publicized the theft. in 1997, some of the pieces began appearing in christie’s auctions in new york, and the buyer subsequently returned them to the museum. in 1999, the fbi recovered 265 of the stolen objects in miami, where they had been hidden in crates of fresh fish. additional pieces were recovered through christie’s auctions. the police tracked down and arrested the thieves, the karahalios gang and their american accomplice. ultimately, the police recovered 274 stolen objects, with 11 still missing.

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the sculptors of the time used to make the heads and bodies separate, so they could switch the heads out as political power changed. thus, the same body might be used once for the head of a particular statesman, and then when he fell out of favor, for the head of his successor.

the staff at the museum don’t allow people to pose with the statues.

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presumably, to prevent smartasses who know how to use photoshop from doing something like this:

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churches of lesvos and chios

i am a big fan of medieval cathedrals, but the greek orthodox churches are particularly impressive. the paintings, the chandeliers, the gilded altarpieces …

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interior of the church of agios (saint) therapon in mytilini, lesvos.
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interior of the taxiarchis (archangel) michael monastery at mantamados, lesvos.

the finest frescoes were in the 12th century church of agios apostolos (holy apostle).  unfortunately, they don’t allow photography inside, and i wasn’t going to be a d*** about it and take pictures while the docent wasn’t looking.  the best i can do to provide a taste of what they were like is to share photos from the interior of the church of agia (saint) kyriaki on aegina, which will i will describe more fully in a later post. while not as well-preserved as the ones in agios apostolos, these frescoes come close:

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some churches are less opulent but impressive nonetheless. the monastery of nea moni is known for its mosaics, fine examples of what is called “macedonian renaissance art.” nea moni is also known for its grisly history: the monastery was sacked by the ottomans during the greek war of independence. they defaced the mosaics and massacred everyone they found inside.

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above, mosaics; below, bones of the massacre victims.
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the beehive tombs of mycenae – with the diana lens

recently, we visited mycenae, which, in the second millennium b.c., was one of greece’s major cities. according to myth, mycenae was founded by the hero perseus, who slew the gorgon medusa. mycenae was also where the bloody events of the house of atreus took place: atreus began his reign by trying to kill his brother, thyestes; his son, agamemnon, became king and went to war against troy after his brother’s wife, helen, ran off to troy with paris, and when the winds wouldn’t blow to send his ships to sea, he decided to sacrifice his daughter, iphigenia, to appease the gods; agamemnon’s wife, clytemnestra, killed him as soon as he came back from the war to take her revenge; and then agamemnon’s son, orestes, killed both her and, later, the son of aegistheus, clytemnestra’s co-conspirator.

perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that mycenaean civilization is known for its tombs.  specifically, mycenae is known for its beehive tombs (“tholos”).  these are burial sites that were cut into a hill and built up with circular walls coming to a point, thus giving them the appearance of beehives.  the earthen domes piled above the tombs have worn away, but the brickwork remains.

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this tholos is “ascribed conventionally” to clytemnestra, according to the accompanying sign, as the archaeologists can’t actually prove who was buried there.  the roof curves up to a point.
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this tholos is called both the treasury of atreus (for its side chamber) and the tomb of agamemnon – its original provenance isn’t clear.

the arching roof motif is repeated, intentionally or not, in other structures as well:

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the lion gate (the main entrance to mycenae) and the stairway down to the main cistern.

as to whether it makes sense to use the diana on shots like these rather than a digital camera, as opposed to just using it for images of creepy old buildings like these, taken just outside the ancient city –

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– is an open question.

next: lesvos or chios, or both.

the temple of poseidon

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having seen the sanctuary and death oracle of poseidon earlier, it was only right for us to see the temple of poseidon at sounio, about an hour’s drive from athens.  the temple of poseidon dates from 440 b.c.  according to legend, this was the spot from which the greek hero theseus’ father, king aegeus, threw himself into the sea: theseus had gone to crete to fight the minotaur in a ship flying black sails, and had told his father that if he won, he would fly white sails on his ship upon his return, while if he died, the crew would fly the black sails.  theseus did defeat the minotaur, and he won the hand of king minos’ daughter ariadne as well.  athena told him to leave ariadne behind, however, and he was so distraught that he forgot to change the sails to white. aegeus saw the black sails from the distance and threw himself into the sea (which subsequently was named the aegean sea).

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closer to today, one can see lord byron’s name scratched into the base of one of the pillars.  byron visited greece for the first time in 1810, before becoming known as a poet and supporter of greek independence, and apparently this was the thing to do. i didn’t find his name, but i found the names of plenty of others from later in the century, including one from (presumably) an italian soldier toward the end of world war ii.

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you will need to click on these photos to see them more clearly.

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