Beyond Athens: The Glories of Greece

Story and photography by
Eric Anderson & Nancy Allen 

 

You could spend a whole vacation in Athens -- indeed its National Archeological Museum is world-famous and its Parthenon, high atop the Acropolis, is surely the very symbol of Greece. But to experience this grand, ancient land, to savor the true Glories of Greece you have to go further afield. Your best option may be a tour arranged before you even leave the United States especially if it covers most of the classic attractions. Don't expect it to get you to Kos, where Hippocrates once practiced his art. The island is far-flung in the Dodecanese chain, only 14 miles from the coast of Turkey and not included in cruises for American tourists. Nor is Corfu, a fascinating island top left on the map close to Albania. Corfu has been occupied by foreign powers so often it's almost more British or Italian than Greek.

So what is accessible? For starters, Cape Sounion, an easy drive southeast from Athens along the Attica coast where, on a headland in the 5th century BC, Greeks built a temple to Poseidon, their god of the sea. Sounion was the last glimpse sailors got of their beloved country as they headed off into the dangers of the Aegean, and it was their first exciting marker if they came back. Here Lord Byron, the poet -- a romantic supporting the Greek war of independence against the Turks -- carved his name on a pillar in a desecrating graffiti.

To the northwest of Athens close to the coast, Delphi still endures though the revered Oracle who spoke from the Greeks' center of the Earth has been silent for millennia.

 

North, in central Thessaly, the Byzantine monasteries of Meteora have hung suspended for more than six centuries on vertical cliffs, poised like clenched fists thrust skyward above upright forearms. South, the Peloponnesos peninsula offers other venerated sites of ancient Greece, beginning at Corinth itself where the very rock St. Paul stood on for his passionate address can still be identified.  Further on lies Olympia, with the tracks of the original Olympic Games even now recognizable. The museum there exhibits the complete collection of the ornaments of the Temple of Zeus and the 5th century BC helmet of Miltiades victor of the battle of Marathon. On the peninsula, too, is Mycenae, the one-time citadel of King Agamemnon whose golden mask found by archeologists is now in the Athens museum.

 

But always the sea beckons to those traveling in Greece. From remote seaports like Napflion whose tiny harbor island boasts an imposing Venetian fortress to inspiring islands like Santorini whose cliff-top homes atop the caldera of the now-dormant volcano gleam stark white like frosting on a wedding cake. When this volcano blew, about 3,600 years ago, dropping a late bronze age settlement into the sea and burying other villages, historians believe so started the legend of Atlantis. Further south still, Crete with the ruins of its Minoan palatial splendors and Rhodes where once the Colossus brushed the heavens, present further stunning examples of Greece's place in history. And to the east the Dodecanese Islands are crowned by Patmos, itself dominated by the 11th century monastery erected in tribute to S. John who, in a deep grotto on the island, penned his Book of Revelations. You can stand today in awe in that privileged place.

In this land of ancient glory, replaced by the Euro, the elegant drachma is no more. But in remote places if you find them pressed into your hand as change, pocket them as souvenirs, rich mementoes of the Golden Age of Greece, this land that gave us the gift of democracy.

Greek National Tourist Office
645 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10022
Tel 212-421-5777 http://www.gnto.gr/?langID=2