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September16,2007

"persephone's plight part 1" music: angry Greek metal from Greek neighbors
mood: spiffy

this weekend, my roommates and i rented a little green car which we lovingly named Persephone. our agenda was to hit Corinth and Marathon, be Classics nerds and see everything big and small, ending with some downtime at the beach. we drove to Corinth on Friday, making a fruitless stop at the industrial town of modern Eleusis in our search for the mysterious Temple of Demeter. after circling around for fifteen minutes with some helpful direction from a Greek man, we abandoned our mission and hit the road. we reached the modern city of Corinth and then made our way to the archaeological site of Ancient Corinth, where the foundations of the ancient city are still relatively well-defined. even the Temple of Apollo had several standing columns.




at first glance, the ruins didn't seem interesting at all, aside from the temple columns and various identifiable structures. the city consisted mostly of rubble, with few intact walls and buildings. luckily, one of my roommates brilliantly brought the Blue Guide book to Greece, from which she read to us aloud, guiding us through the site with historical explanations. there were many cisterns and shops with empty shelves. there were also some recognizable Roman structures, particularly the long path by the basilica. the museum at the site also contained some interesting sculptures recovered from the site. of course, almost all of them were headless. the structure around the fountain of Peirene was also very intact, though contrary to the Blue Guide, the trickle of water was not heard. however, because the Peirene spring was the ancient water source for the city and flowed from Acrocorinth, we made it our primary mission to find that spring as we climbed up the mountain to the ancient acropolis of Corinth.

Acrocorinth was a tedious climb, but nevertheless, one of the most rewarding. we first drove halfway up the mountain to the first gate of the fortress. (mind you, that drive may have been very helpful, but the climb was not easier because of the slippery marble path up until the second gate, and the blazing heat combined with rocky unstable paths made the climb littered with dangers.) we made our way up to the first highest point of the fortress. along the way, we stopped by a tiny Byzantine church, realizing how confusing the history of this site is because of the various occupations throughout its 2000 year existence. from being the acropolis of ancient Corinth to a key strategic spot for the Turkish empire, this site has been rebuilt and destroyed throughout history, but never completely destroyed between the change of eras. aside from that, no one really knows who did what on the mountain/rock. the site was strategic with the highest peak by the isthmus and thus, a bit treacherous to climb. stephanie and i experienced it personally because from either stupidity or audacity, we decided to take a shortcut up the mountain and climbed the rocks instead of keeping to the trail. we hopped over a break in the fortress wall, only to find that we had not yet reached the summit, where the temple of Aphrodite once stood overlooking all of Corinth.


when we finally arrived at the summit of the mountain, the view was spectacular. on one side we saw the sea, while on the other side, towering mountains abounded endlessly into the distance. the view was certainly worth the laborious climb, but i will never make the stupid decision to climb up the rocks without knowing where it will lead me.


on the way down the mountain, one of us slid over some rocks and rolled over her ankle. no, it was not me, but a fifth person in our little posse, who made the "smart" decision to wear Rainbow flip-flops on our hiking excursion. she hurt her ankle so terribly that she could not walk the rest of her way down the mountain. thus began Persephone's Plight.


the situation was absolutely ridiculous, because there were four of us to carry her and help her down the mountain, but it took almost a squadron of people to actually bring her back down the mountain to our parked car, little green Persephone. even two old Italian couples, who hiked their way up to the summit like us, lent their feeble helping hands and offered to carry flip-flop girl down the slope. but alas, no, the local Greek paramedic (who modestly told my roommate that he also spoke fluent Italian because he went to medical school there) came to the rescue, carrying her on his back to the first gate where the stretcher came hundreds of meters too late to help. the paramedic, jiannis (john), was so kind to us that he even led us to the Corinth hospital, filled out the necessary paperwork, and made sure the flip-flop girl would receive proper treatment. the situation was incredibly stressful, ironically amusing, and deserved a glass of wine with a trip to the bar at the end of our "plight."

on our way back to Athens, we drove over the Corinth Canal, which took almost 2000 years to dig through. when we got out of the car to walk across the bridge, we saw a ferry of passengers riding through the canal. the canal really gave me a better sense of how narrow this isthmus really is, and how frustrating it must have been for the ancient Greeks sailing around the Peloponnese to have looked across the isthmus from the Aegean only to see the Ionian Sea on the opposite side, knowing they could not cut through. the trailing sunset on the west side of the canal was beautiful, and i envy those passengers on the ferry who were able to literally sail to the sunset.


thus ends part 1, and i will finish with part 2 in the morning.