Ancient Greece Odyssey: A Traveler's Journal

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Take a Magical Tour of Ancient Greece...

Myth major seeks armchair travelers, art lovers, and born-again pagans for a ramble through the ruins of ancient Greece.

Odyssey
Latest Update:
Mycenae Museum
Posted 4.25.08

I visited Greece in spring 2005 for the first time, where I have been going in my imagination for almost 30 years. During that time I had earned a BA and MA in classical studies, but I never quite fit into academia. When I worked on the Perseus Project in 1993, my personal homepage said, "Other scholars beat the ancient world to death, when it's already dead. I want to bring it to life." I still do.

There are red, red poppies growing up through the cracks in the marble monuments of Eleusis, where rites to Demeter and Persephone promised initiates immortality.

In the ruins of Athena's shrine on Mt. Parnassos, where Gaia had a sanctuary guarded by a python long before Apollo slew her serpent and stole her oracle, green snakes still glide in the tall grasses beneath dusky olive trees.

The acoustics at the great theater of Epidauros are still sound enough that if you dare to recite Homer-- "Sing, goddess, of the wrath of Achilles--" your voice will carry clear up the mountainside to the topmost seats.

Listen. Akoue. I'm going to tell you a story.

Students! Are you looking for pictures of Greek gods or answers to common questions about ancient Greece or the Odyssey? Check out my Greece Odyssey FAQ written just for you!

(Except where noted, all photographs, text and artwork © Ellen Brundige 2005.)

The Summons 

Introduction to My Greek Odyssey

temple of athena
"So, are you coming to Greece with us?" my friend Lisa asked over lunch in February 2005.

Greece? A few doubletakes later, I found myself sitting crosslegged on the floor of a lecture room at Pacifica, shakily holding a flyer for Greece with Chris Downing. Chris Downing, professor of Greek and Roman myth, author of a more than a dozen books including The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine. Chris Downing, who had taught with Z. Budapest and Carol Christ. A crone with a sparkle in her eye and a passion for literature and the soul, who at 74 thinks nothing of walking thirteen miles a day. The trip's suggested reading list included Mary Renault and Euripides and Aristopanes.

The itinerary was a hit parade of many of the places I've studied or helped catalog for the Perseus library: Athens, Eleusis, Delphi, Mycenae, Epidauros, Delos, Naxos, and... last but not least, Santorini. Thera, its proper name. A speck on the map in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It was that name that made me sit on the floor and shake.

Echoes of Atlantis 

My Childhood Dreams of Greece

theraThera. How long has that island held me in its spell? I remember stumbling across its legend as a child. Before the Trojan war, before Greece was Greek, a thriving people we call Minoans lived on the big island of Crete. They plied the seas with ships, trading with Egypt and Babylon and the Bronze Age peoples living where Greece would one day arise from marble-bedded hills. Minoan art abounded with flowers, colorfully-dressed courtiers, leaping bulls and dolphins, royal gryphons, and the double-bladed axe that was their chief symbol.

Santorini, ancient Thera, was a smaller island north of Crete where the Minoans had settled, mixed with other seafarers, and built a city that seemed to blend the best of many of the oldest civilizations in the world. Their furniture was ornate, their pottery beautiful, and the rooms of their homes were painted with charming vignettes of fishing and sailing and boys' sports and maidens picking flowers. They were a prosperous and flourishing people.

Then, sometime in the 15th century BCE, the island awoke, like Vesuvius looming over Pompeii. Stairs cracked and walls fell. The people struggled to stay, but their rich fertile soil was a volcano's gift-- or rather, a loan. When the caldera gave way, seawater rushed in, met with molten rock and exloded, blowing out the entire middle of the island and leaving only a ragged circle of land which had formerly been shore. It was much like Krakatoa, that awesome cataclysm that robbed the world of one summer in 1883, save for one thing-- Thera's magma chamber was four times larger. Or at least that was the tale told in Atlantis: the Biography of a Legend, an early book on the discovery and excavation of Thera's ruined city.

More recent scientific studies have downgraded the severity of the disaster, but as a child I was gripped by the tale's power. I wrote stories and poems about the lost island that fell into the sea. For surely, garbled as it was, this was the root of the Atlantis legend Plato retold a thousand years later.

When you receive a summons like this, you had better answer. It's like the poet's Muse.

Recommended Book on the Atlantis Legend 

Voyage to Atlantis: The Discovery of a Legendary Land

Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 07/10/2009)Buy Now

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution takes readers on a worldwide expedition tracking down the Atlantis legend and revealing how natural disasters leave their mark in myth. This book is a little out of date, but still an excellent read. It includes photos and information on several fascinating ancient sites.

Arrival in Athens: The Journey Begins 

Travel Diary, 30th April, Kentral Hotel


Athens.

At the floor-length window of a tiny room, I sit late in the night in the glow of the Acropolis. The fireworks that sprinkled the city are over. Gunfire and the sound of Greek Orthodox hymns have died away. The city is very quiet, although I still hear a few glad voices, the swish of a car below, and the soft squeak of bats.

The Acropolis is golden. The Erechtheion and the Parthenon peek over the top by their head and shoulders. What did they think tonight with the hymns booming out: Christos aneste! "Christ has arisen"? I suppose Athena is glad the fireworks don't come too near; the Parthenon is looking a little worse for wear.

Acropolis, Athens
(First picture out hotel window, taken earlier that day)

So how was the journey here? Long and far. It began at 3:45 AM two days ago with an hour-long shuttle ride to Los Angeles, then a six-hour flight to New York, which wasted so much time fussing on the runway that I nearly got to reenact Ariadne's least favorite moment. I barely caught the flight to Athens.

aerial photo of Greece Overseas flights are so long. Somehow the night seems darker with deep ocean below rather than solid ground. In the morning, we flew down the coast of Italy. I could clearly make out the long rectangular strips of the iugera, Roman fields kept cultivated to this day. The port of Brundisium settled by ancient Greeks was nestled where it should be upon the heel. There was lingering snow on the Appenines, and more in the rugged heights of Greece when we crossed over the short strait of sea to the other side. Somehow I had not grasped how sharp, how rugged were its mountains.

Customs was easy-- waiting for the bags, not so easy! In the airport I caught up with some ladies of my tour group. One had booked a ride online with George's Famous Taxi, and he was more prompt than my LA shuttle had been! We decanted at the Central Hotel on Apollonos (Apollo) Street, after a bewildering ride through many narrow alleys. After unwinding in my room, I came down to find Chris Downing welcoming arrivals on a balcony above the lobby. She recommended that I set out and begin my explorations at once.

So, armed with a detailed map, I ambled out into tiny streets, most paved with flagstones and flanked by shops and friendly people. There was an amazing (well, not really) amount of replica Greek art for sale: statues and red-figure vases, even Cycladic figurines, most of which I was more used to seeing from the opposite end of a slide projector.

Google Maps: My Tour of Greece 

Interactive satellite and road map of Greece

Interactive map of Greece trip itinerary Odysseus' overseas jaunt took ten years -- twenty if you count his stopover at Troy. Mine was just two weeks, but I had better accommodations.
Overview of My Greece Trip's Itinerary
Follow me around Greece! I've marked all the sites that we visited and the routes we took on a Google map. Scroll, zoom in and out, or jump to my lenses focusing on different parts of my trip by clicking the colored markers.

My First Day in Athens (Stoa of Attalos) 

Travel Diary, 30th April [written the following afternoon]

At length I found my way to the... Stoa of Attalos! Not a name the casual tourist would know, but for me it was strangely surreal, like finding an old school friend having lunch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It was built about 150 BCE by King Attalos II of Pergamon, one of the dynasties founded by the generals of Alexander the Great carving up his empire after his death. By that time, Athens was already considered classic, dwelling on her former glories. Petty tyrants, kings, and emperors would pay homage to her by financing monuments. Hence the stoa, whose long arcade would have housed shops or perhaps an art museum, which is how it functions today. How strange to find it side by side with a modern metro line, the ruined blocks of a Roman forum beside the rails.

stoa of attalos


The stoa faced onto the Agora, the civic heart of ancient Athens, now a green tumbled wilderness of bushes, flowers, long grass and ruined marble. Alas, this was the day before Orthodox Easter, so I found it closed. I wandered on disappointing various merchants by looking, not buying. I stopped in a random cafe at 3, hungry and tired and confused about time, and had my first Greek salad and lamb, a staple in these parts. Obviously I was an out-of-towner; the rest of the city was fasting for Easter.

stoa of attalos


I found Raquel, my roommate for this tour, in the room when I returned. At sunset we climbed to the hotel's rooftop for orientation, with the rock of the Acropolis looming up behind us and the Parthenon solid and real on its brow.

Chris began her lectures by speaking of "her" Greece, her lived experience of this place, and how it's new each time. She spoke of hopes and fears of coming to a land steeped in legend, of how we might fear that real Greece might not match the imaginal one. Turning to Greece itself, she spoke of two strata in its culture and history: early Greece, steeped in ritual and cult and reverence for goddesses, and the Greece of classical times, a patriarchal world where mythology and gods were the stuff of literature as much as cult.

First Evening in Athens (Orthodox Easter) 

Travel Diary, 30th April [written the following afternoon]

Acropolis at night The sunset behind the Acropolis was a stunning backdrop for dinner, although the evening air was biting cold. Some of the group went out into the city to attend late Easter services and drink in the pageantry and the singing. They participated in the local custom of breaking eggs dyed a deep dark red, a tradition to honor rebirth and spring that probably predates the name they called out while doing it: Christos aneste! I had wondered why our hotel had left us two eggs in a basket!

I was cold and tired and wary of walking city streets at night, but there on the rooftop we had a view of the whole city laid out before us. Athens is no more level than Rome, so up and down the hills we could see many people processing or holding candles. The soaring choruses of hundreds of voices singing from cathedral and church and square made the city resonate. Chilled and wondering, we stood entranced.

Around midnight, bright fireworks and gunshots went up all over the city, and the many layers of bells ringing and interweaving from all directions brought tears to our eyes. The sound echoed off the cliffs of the Acropolis. There alone, an island of silence in a sea of music and thunder, the shrines and monuments of a different world stood stoically abandoned, their marble columns bathed in golden light from many spotlights that illumined them all night long.



Classic Night View of the Parthenon and Surrounding Acropolis
Nowitz, Richard
Buy at AllPosters.com

Google Maps: Follow Me Around Athens! 

Also, a Few Recommended Links

Interactive map of Greece
MAP: Athenian Landmarks I Visited
Here is a Google satellite and street map of Athens. I've marked our route and all the monuments mentioned on this page to show you where we went!
Dr. J's Illustrated Acropolis
Photo gallery and lecture notes on several monuments by a professor of classics.
Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Acropolis Guide
Official guide to Acropolis, including pages on individual monuments and visitors' information.
Acropolis 360 Panoramic Views
Website with 360-degree Quicktime panoramas of and information about the Acropolis and surrounding hills/monuments. Includes audio commentary (can be disabled).

Second Day in Athens (Agora, Propylaia) 

Travel Diary, 1st May, Kentral Hotel

Second Day in Athens

Athens

On Sunday we slept in, then set out from the Central Hotel to see what the city might show us. Squares were filled with people breaking their Easter fast on roast lamb spitted over open coals just as Homer described. There was music and dancing everywhere. At length we came to the Stoa of Attalos, by now an old friend, but the gates to the Agora were again closed. So we ambled beside its ruins sunk below street level, great open expanses of blocks and marble overgrown by tall grass and flowers and bushes, submerged islands of the past lying tantalizingly on the far side of fences and locked gates. Over the Agora in the distance the Acropolis loomed. When we came far enough around to look up at its western face, I had a surprise-- empty scaffolding enclosing the spot where the pretty little Temple of Athena Nike usually stands, perched on a high bastion on the righthand side of the great entrance to the Acropolis, the Propylaia.

Well, I knew what should be there, so only a little disappointed we kept edging around the Agora until we'd climbed the long Pnyx hill, past the wonderfully-preserved Temple of Hephaistos, past the grotto where Pan, they say, used to pipe to the nymphs, past the Kallirhoe spring and up to the olive-clad foot of the Acropolis, the Propylaia just above us.

proylaia
Propylaia, the gateway to the Acropolis


Turning back to face the city and the Agora, we climbed out onto a knee of the Acropolis that has its own famous name, the Areopagus (Mars Hill). There, long before democracy, the Athenian elders met to discuss city affairs. Centuries later, Paul preached his sermons there to dubious merchants from the Agora below. I shed my shoes and we climbed up onto Athenian limestone polished by thousands of years of passage. Below the city spread out before us. Dancing swallows rode the blustery fresh wind, and we drank in the pure Greek sun and sky. Chris was up there too with her granddaughter. We shared the view and some talk, but I was off in my own world watching swooping swallows and thinking of Thera's flaking plaster walls.

Second Day in Athens (Agora, Taos Indians) 

Travel Diary, 1st May, Kentral Hotel

Athenian Agora
Panorama of Agora and Athens from Areopagus Hill
Temple of Hephaistos, left; Stoa of Attalos, Right
Distant left: Marble Quarry for Parthenon, still in use


Descending the heights, we cut through the edge of the Agora, where a few ruins were still open to visitors, including the foundations of a temple to Hekate. There I got my first taste of what was to become a familiar sight of which I never tired: red, red poppies overrunning the old stones, wild barley grasses rustling in the wind. Just past the temple was an orange grove fragrant with hanging jasmine, a feast for the nose.

athenian agora and temple of hecate
Agora / Temple of Hecate foundations


Past that came an unlikely feast for the ears. Coming down to the ruins of a Roman forum, we were drawn by the sound of pipes, flutes and drums, which in fact we had been hearing here and there all afternoon. Now we discovered the source. Native American musicians from Taos, not far from Raquel's home, were giving an impromptu outdoor concert before the ancient Roman library of the emperor Hadrian, a grecophile who would probably have appreciated their music! Greeks danced to the unlikely music of a continent away. Old and new, far and near were blended together by Andean pan-pipes.

Taos Indians in Athens
Native American musicians in front of Library of Hadrian.


For a late lunch we had Greek salad at an outdoor cafe and that ubiquitous iced chocolate drink that became a staple of my daily wanderings.

Finally we returned to the hotel, where I had a chance to bring my diary up-to-date.

In the evening, Chris gave us the second of her many brilliant 2-hour lectures. See below for my lecture notes! (If you'd rather skip the lecture and continue exploring Athens, here's a shortcut to
Ancient Greece Odyssey Part Two).

Sneak Peak at Things to Come 

Ancient Greece Odyssey: Glimpses

Here's a sneak preview of some places we'll be visiting in future chapters.
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Lecture Notes: Origins of Greek Religion 

Summary of Dr. Chris Downing's talk, 1st May 2005

Note: this is my summary of Dr. Downing's lecture; it's not word-for-word.



Jane Ellen Harrison said: in the beginning, there were no gods and goddesses. There were ghosts, angry spirits with humanlike will.

There were daimones (spriits) in every rock and stream. They were sources of fertility, disease, death, the weather. Heroes like Hercules, Theseus, Perseus were said to be descended from nymphs.

There were spirits of the dead: those slain in battle, those unburied. The Erinyes ("Furies") were fearful female spirits, baleful avengers of the dead.

Then came a gradual infiltration of northern nomadic peoples with a more astral (sky) based religion. They swept over all Greece and transformed local spirits into gods/goddesses, nymphs, heroines. E.g. Ariadne, Helen.

The Greek's relationship to these nature spirits consisted of fear, awe, and gratitude. Greek religion began with rituals -- of purification, of protection, etc. It was purely animist.

Even later in antiquity, rituals were performed to prevent/dispel disease, plague, drought, and famine. There were rituals at the tombs of dead heroes to seek comfort and aid. There were incubation rituals (sleeping in a sacred space and/or seeking spiritual aid through dreams) to deal with physical or spiritual ailments.

Gradually spirits anthropomorphized (became more human). They were given names and stories (myths) to explain who they were, what they did, and where they'd come from.By the time the gods are named, they're mythical and fully human. Stories add in human frailty. They've lost their connection with the natural world.

Linear B tablets (from the Mycenaean civilization, pre-Greek) already have some of the gods' names: Artemis, Hera, Dionysos. Notice there are some gods, not just goddesses.

poppies on ruins of Temple of Hekate in AgoraMany of these names started out as epithets (nicknames, titles), like Kourotrophos, "nurturer". The earliest names for deities were like names that one might find in fairy tales. For example, in the Homeric Hymns, we find Kore ("maiden"), Dione ("goddess") and Despoina ("the mistress"). Other prominent early goddesses include Gaia/Ge (Mother Earth) and Hestia, hearthfire.

Sacrifices were always given to one particular facet of a deity. Never to "Athena", but to "Athene Polias" (Athena of the city), for example.
The Jungian/archetypal view of particular gods as embodiments of some eternal force (for example, Hermes the trickster, Apollo standing for clarity, Athene for wisdom, Demeter for motherhood) doesn't work for Greece.

In the myths, the gods are involved in process -- they are not static! For example, Hestia yields up her place in Olympus to Dionysos.

No Greek god says "worship only me", but "worship me". -- Chris Downing

General Links on Ancient Greece, Greek History and Mythology 

recommended websites on ancient Greek history and religion
My Greece Timeline
Easy-to-read timeline of ancient Greek history written for Ancient Greece Odyssey.
Theoi Project
Excellent guide to Greek divinities (gods and daimones) including regional variants, cults and translations of ancient sources describing them.
An Overview of Classical Greek History
Free e-text version of classicist Tom Martin's Overview of Classical Greek History, which I helped edit/hyperlink in the early days of the web.
Romanus_Too's Flickr Gallery
This isn't actually recommended for reading, just browsing. Here are some really beautiful photos of Athens by someone who had a better camera and more photographic skill than I!

Lecture Notes: The Acropolis of Athens 

My notes from Dr. Chris Downing's talk, 1st May 2005

The goddess Athena and the origins of Greek religion

The Acropolis is Athena's, but also shared. Most of the restored Acropolis is hers, but there were also altars, statues, shrines, temples to Pytho (Persuasion), Artemis, and Poseidon.

 athenian=


It was settled in the second millennium BCE, the site of a Bronze Age palace. It was considered sacred from the 8th century onwards.

Before the Persians burned it (480 BCE) -- including a wooden temple of Athena -- the priestess of Athene Polias reported that her sacred serpent had refused its offering of honeycake, meaning the goddess had left. So the people fled the Acropolis and left it to destruction, but in the final battle burned the Persians' ships.

All current buildings are from a 5th century BCE reconstruction project by the leader Pericles. Athens exacted tribute from the Delian League, a federation of Greek city-states. The money was supposed to pay for military defense following Athens' defeat of the Persians, but Pericles sank it into rebuilding the Acropolis.

Temples were not places of worship, but houses of the gods.

The Parthenon housed Pheidias' giant gold-and ivory statue of Athena. The back room was filled with offerings to the goddess. Rituals were held outdoors partly because they were animal sacrifices. No rituals were held within the Parthenon in the classical period. Muslims and Christians later used it as a church.

The sculptures on the pediment are stories. They depict the birth of Athena, the contest of Poseidon and Athena, the Gigantomachy (battle of gods vs. Titans), the Trojan War, the Centauromachy(battle of Greeks vs. Centaurs) and the Amazonomachy (mythical battle of Greek vs. Amazons). All represent mythologizing of the Persian wars in which the Greeks defeated a foreign, powerful, barbaric (to the Greeks) foe.

For Further Reading... 

Recommended Links Related to the Parthenon

recommended websites on the Parthenon
Dr. J's Illustrated Persian Wars
Lively account of the Persian Wars, including the Battle of Marathon.
Ancient-Greece.org's Parthenon Page
Excellent history, photos, and description of the Parthenon.
Parthenon at Nashville
Astounding full-sized reconstruction of the Parthenon, including painted reliefs and 41-foot-tall statue of Athena.

Lecture Notes: The Goddess Athena 

My notes from Dr. Chris Downing's talk, 1st May 2005

The goddess Athena and the origins of Greek religion
To know Athena...

Think of individual statues, epithets, cults, rituals. [Again, Chris emphasizing particularity of the goddess... Athena as seen in specific local festivals, rituals, stories, shrines.]

Attributes...
Owl: not only wisdom, but dark, bird of prey
Snakes: creatures of underworld
Olive Tree: her gift to humankind
Head of Medusa on her breastplate

Common epithet (nickname): Parthenos, the maiden. She embodies female self-sufficiency.

Athena's virginity reminds us of her close involvement with both males and females not contaminated by passion. She can use her energy in a sublimated form (arts, crafts, strategy).

The famous relief of the "Mourning Athena" shows her grieving at not being able to protect her community from -- and by -- war.

She is competent, creative, and intelligent.

She also stands for the patriarchy! (See her speech in Aeschylos' Eumenides, which of course is written by a male playwright to endorse Athens' male-only democracy)

She is an ambivalent goddess, but this is true of all: they have a bright and dark side.

Athena's most important ritual in Athens was the Arrephoria. Two girls aged 7-12 lived on the Acropolis for a year and wove the Peplos, a special gown for the ancient wooden statue saved from the Persian's destrustion. The Arrephoria a nighttime ritual. They were given a basket into which they may not look. They went down through the rock of the Acropolis from the precinct of Athena to the temple of Aphrodite. The priestess there took something out, and put something else back in. Snakes? A phallic symbol? As with many Greek mysteries, we are tantalized by hints but have few details. The girls carried the basket back to Athena. The wellbeing of the entire city depended on these two girls. In the second part of the ritual, they bathed and reclothed the wooden statue. We know from other myths that Aphrodite was supposed to renew her virginity by bathing, but we don't know if that connection was made here.

Athena From My "It's All Greek to Me!" Shop 

For these designs on other kinds of gifts, click the logo to go to my storefront! Unique Gifts with an Ancient Greek Twist

Archaic Athena Women's T-Shirt

Show off your inner goddess with this incredible Athene shirt. Photograph of a 6th-century BC archaic statue in Athens makes for an eye-catching design on this women's T-shirt.

Price: 16.99Buy Now

Athena Art Journal

Unique gift from ancient Greece for the art lover, student, teacher, or history buff! Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, leans on her spear. Original art based on the 5th-century BC "Mourning Athena".

Price: 11.99Buy Now

Parthenon Tote Bag

One side has a fine art photo of the Parthenon, Athena's temple on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. On the other is an original drawing of the goddess based on an ancient sculpture.

Price: 14.99Buy Now

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Lecture Notes: Myths of Athena 

From my notes on Chris Downing's talk, 1st May 2005

The goddess Athena and the origins of Greek religion
Finally, we know about Athena through stories. Here are some of the famous Greek myths about her:
  • The birth of Athena from Zeus' skull after he swallows Metis, the goddess of wisdom and watery, creative intuition. (He did this after hearing that a son born of him and Metis would overthrow him.) Chris suggests that Athena's relation to women, like Metis herself, is hidden.
  • In one myth, Hera gives birth to the god Hephaistos parthenogenically in envy of Athena's birth.
  • Athena and Poseidon had a contest to see who was to be the patron deity of Athens. Poseidon created a saltwater spring on the Acropolis, Athena an olive tree. The Athenians voted for Athena. Both (supposedly) were contained within the sacred grounds of the Erechtheion temple.
  • King Erectheus, the mythical first king of Athens, was said to be born from the seed that the ground after Athena wiped off her leg in disgust when Hephaistos tried and failed to seduce her.
  • Medusa was a beautiful human girl ravished by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. The goddess, furious, cursed Medusa, changing her into a hideous monster with snaky hair whose gaze turned people to stone. After Perseus slew Medusa, Athena placed the head on her breastplate (aegis) to strike terror into foes.
  • Late myths have Athena as the lover of the nymph Chariklo.

Books on Greek Mythology and Religion 

good books on Greek mythology and religion /><br /><br />
I use all of these as reference books on Greek mythology and religion.

The Genealogy of Greek Mythology: An Illustrated Family Tree of Greek Myth from the First Gods to the Founders of R

Family tree of every god, goddess, and hero, with tons of handy charts and lists (participants in Trojan War, the 12 labors of Hercules, Roman names of Greek gods, etc).

Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 07/10/2009) Buy Now

Usually ships in 24 hours

Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook (World of Art)

Topical and diachronic survey of how classical vases and sculpture depict Greek gods, goddesses, and individual myths.

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/10/2009) Buy Now

Usually ships in 24 hours

Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Vol. 1

Detailed, two-volume resource on Greek mythology. Invaluable for the serious student/scholar.

Amazon Price: $22.50 (as of 07/10/2009) Buy Now

Usually ships in 24 hours

Greek Religion

Definitive study by well-respected modern classicist.

Amazon Price: $25.65 (as of 07/10/2009) Buy Now

Usually ships in 24 hours

The Journey Continues... 

And that's just my second full day in Athens! Now it's time to head for the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the museums of Athens in Ancient Greece Odyssey: Part Two!

Ancient Greece Odyssey Day 3: Acropolis and Athens' Museums

ancient greece odyssey travel diary


Complete Index of Ancient Greece Odyssey:

Thanks and Awards 


This site is dedicated with love and thanks to my mentor, Dr. Chris Downing, who led me and the rest of our group on this magical journey and spent hours each day sharing her scholar's knowledge.


Thanks also to Gabby for nominating this page as Lens of the Day in May '07, and to everyone who's browsed, commented, rated, or voted for it since!

Guestbook for Fellow Travelers 


Leave a friendly note if you enjoyed this lens. Or click here to email a friend about it!

P.S. An extra "thank you" to Vivia, who wrote this:"You have a very nice camera! IT WAS A BIGG HELP IN MY SOCIAL STUDIES PROJECT!! Lol, anyway, Im only 6th grade, but I think Im gonna get an a off of this. But dont worry, no palgerism was commited, I gave you some credit for the pics!! Lol, good work, and keep at it."
~ Vivia
Vivia: I hope you got an A! Two thumbs up for giving credit and not plagiarizing!

And a belated but no less heartfelt thank you to everyone who left warm wishes about the 2008 Giant Squid Award. You all are too kind!

DougP wrote...

Quite a good job, my "5" is added to all the others!

ReplyPosted May 06, 2009

minkyz wrote...

Thank you GreekGeek, really good lens hope mine gets half way as good. Mind if I favourite it? When I find out how to do it! Ha Ha!!

Minky

ReplyPosted May 05, 2009

Janusz wrote...

I would love to visit Greece one day, fantastic Lens!. Blessed by a Squid Angel :)

ReplyPosted April 18, 2009

amandaryan wrote...

Cool lens, amazing pictures. Just got back from Athens myself. Drop by at my lens, http://www.squidoo.com/fly-coach-in-comfort

ReplyPosted April 16, 2009

rydigga wrote...

Hi,

Phenomenal lens. Thanks for sharing :)

Ryan

ReplyPosted April 13, 2009

 
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