Saturday, June 9, 2012

Day 5: Athens, Marathon and Sunion

One of the cornerstones of this class is the impact of Marathon on "Athenian Exceptionalism" and its influence on the cultural arts.We were taken to the museum and battlefield site of Marathon and even had a chance to reenact the famous "run" of the Athenians that occurred during the battle.

The museum was small but housed a nice collection of local finds.It is located next to a preserved Middle Helladic (1750-1550 BCE) site of grave tombs.



Then we reboarded the bus and looked out of the hill of the battle

First we viewed with our own eyes the hills where Miltiades ordered his men and then we discussed the specific aspects of the battle as I gave an oral midterm. We also looked at the surviving polyandron tomb of the 192 Athenians and the tumulus that stands as the victory marker



Here is a large 3-D scale map of the battle site. Kate, Peter, AJ and Derek are passionately arguing their theories of the battle
Strategoi AJ and Derek argue their respective positions

We then even recreated the famous "run" at Marathon as the Athenian troops charged the Persian lines. Here is a series of photos of myself, Derek, AJ, and Lucas charging "British Holly"
Click on this link to see an animated GIF: http://i.imgur.com/rvDpK.gif


Then we drove to the coast itself and splashed around on the very beach where the Persians moored their ships on the Attic coast exactly 2,502 years ago.
 This was, of course, the most difficult part of the day.

(from left to right) AJ, Italian Holly, Peter, Kate, and Derek return from the beach
(Courtesy of Holly Bowers)

Then the students returned to their dorms while I ran into the center of Athens to rent a large passenger van for our weekend excursion. We first used the van to see the sun set beneath the western waves upon the hill of Cape Sunion where Poseidon has an Archaic age temple.


Here Peter and "British Holly" stand before the temple

(Courtesy of Peter Stone)

Next we leave for the Argolid, where we will visit the Late Bronze Age sites of Mycenae and the Classical sites of Epidauros





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