The Theatre Created by Epidaurus

The Theatre Created by Epidaurus

By Laura and Trinity

It was a great experience, and it was a great experience. It was a great experience. This theater is in the east of Greece on the Argolid plain. The theater is called "Epidaurus" because there is a hero named "Epidaurus, who is the son of Apollo who created this civic monument" (from http://www.ancient.eu/epidaurus/ ) for dramatic performances. The theater was destroyed in 395 by the Goths and Emperor Theodosius the second. However, the theater was deserted because of earthquakes that occurred between 522-551. Than the site was found in 1881 by the Greek Archaeological Society. A fun fact about this site is that there are fourteen thousand people in the audience to watch the performance.

First off, when we were at the entrance of Epidaurus, there were stray cats and dogs everywhere, so everyone was happy about petting the animals. Once we entered, we headed up a hill to the Theater of Epidaurus. At the gates of the theater (look at the picture at the top right), our tour guide talked about "how the gates looked." (Maria Elena). When we entered, our tour guide explains the acoustics of the theater and how it works. For example, "when you are in the center of your voice, you are more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) There were stray cats and dogs everywhere, so everyone was happy about petting the animals. Once we entered, we headed up a hill to the Theater of Epidaurus. At the gates of the theater (look at the picture at the top right), our tour guide talked about "how the gates looked." (Maria Elena). When we entered, our tour guide explains the acoustics of the theater and how it works. For example, "when you are in the center of your voice, you are more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) There were stray cats and dogs everywhere, so everyone was happy about petting the animals. Once we entered, we headed up a hill to the Theater of Epidaurus. At the gates of the theater (look at the picture at the top right), our tour guide talked about "how the gates looked." (Maria Elena). 

 When we entered, our tour guide explains the acoustics of the theater and how it works. For example, "when you are in the center of your voice, you are more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) At the gates of the theater (look at the picture at the top right), our tour guide talked about "how the gates looked." (Maria Elena). When we entered, our tour guide explains the acoustics of the theater and how it works. For example, "when you are in the center of your voice, you are more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) At the gates of the theater (look at the picture at the top right), our tour guide talked about "how the gates looked." (Maria Elena). When we entered, our tour guide explains the acoustics of the theater and how it works. For example, "when you are in the center of your voice, you are more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) "When you stand in the center your voice is more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. However, back in the day. (Maria Elena) "When you stand in the center your voice is more clear and when you lie on the ground your voice gets louder. (Maria Elena)

The theater looked like a circle with three fourths of it surrounded by the audience. The stage looked like a modern thrust stage. This structure was very detailed because of the arrangement of the seating and where the stage was. Once the tour guide was done explaining about the site, everyone went up and down the stairs to experiment the volume of the site.

Overall, we really enjoyed learning about the theatre and thought the view was really nice from the top of the theatre(look at bottom left picture). We also tried out the volume of the stage and the kids on the tour tried it out and had fun with experimenting with the volumes. Lastly, we would recommend it to people who go to Greece in the future.

Sources:

• http://www.ancient.eu/epidaurus/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidaurus

Mistras

Mistras the old village

    By Ianis Paval and Alessandro Piermattei   

To begin with we didn’t expect much because we hadn’t heard of this town before. Mistras was a Greek town which was built in the 13th century after Christ. The name Mistras has a strange translation to Greek. It means cheese. Almost twenty thousand people lived there in Byzantine times.

Nowadays Mistras is mostly destroyed.  It isn’t old--it is just ruined. At the moment it is one of the most important places of Byzantine art. Byzantine is mostly late medieval times. Mistras has a lot of medieval churches where Byzantine art is represented, with paintings that show how the catholic religion and how Jesus were born. The churches are mostly destroyed because the place was temporarily under Turkish rule and since at the time most of them were muslim they didn’t not allow any reparation to the churches.

The historic and military adventures of Greece are completely different from the rest of Europe. Greece was caught in the middle of some wars. Mistras was one of the last towns that was destroyed. At the entrance of the city there is a statue of the last Greek emperor, Constantine XI, who was the last Byzantine emperor.

At the moment, in total the city contains a palace which in 1262 the citizens of Sparta used it as a place of shelter, churches, a museum, a cathedral and many churches. After we heard more about its history and its facts, we found out that this is an interesting city and it’s worth to look further into.       

Information from: Maria Elena   

Travelog Blog ACROPOLIS By Moritz J Mohr

Travelog Blog

ACROPOLIS

By Moritz J Mohr

Above the city of Athens in Greece lays an ancient citadel: The Acropolis of Athens.In Greece you can find many acropolises but the most famous one is the one in Athens which is known all over the world as THE ACROPOLIS without any specification.”The word Acropolis comes from the Greek words akron “highest point” and polis “city”.” The Acropolis is significant because it contains the remains of several ancient buildings and structures of great architectural and historic importance and beauty. The most famous doric limestone building is the Parthenon which was dedicated to the goddess Athena, who has been the patron for the people of Athens. During the fourth millennium BC the hill was inhabited for the first time but most buildings refer to the sixth and fifth century BC.

My favorite part about the Acropolis was the Parthenon because I could see the blood, sweat and tears that went into the building of this miraculous structure that has lasted for centuries. I expected the Acropolis to be another boring, old, dilapidated pile of rocks but actually I was proven wrong. The immense size and architectural perfection  that overlook the city of Athens took the words out of my mouth and left me standing there with astonishment. I wish I had a time machine to go back in time to ancient Greece and to see the Acropolis alive and in action. As stones can not speak I used my imagination to dive into this ancient life. To visit the Acropolis was a great opportunity,which I would strongly recommend to anyone.

(All the information included was sourced at  www.akropolis.gr; www.wikipedia.org/acropolis and our tour guide Maria Elena)

                                                             Bowled over by Zeus

The first time I saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, I was not quite—but almost—literally bowled over.  It was so completely unexpected and astonishing that I’m sure my dropped jaw and wide eyes made me look like a cartoon version of myself.  FYI, it has become my favorite historical site in the city.   

 

We had just that morning done The Big Sights/Sites—you know, starting at the Theatre of Dionysus, heading up the hill to the Odeon of Herod Atticus, and then making the final trek to the Acropolis at the summit.  So I had been suitably delighted (by the performing arts places) and impressed (by the seat of government & religion).  We had scrambled down the far side of the hill, walked through a street market, and found ourselves suddenly opposite a park with some extraordinarily tall columns—even more so because we’d had no idea they were there.  We crossed the road, found the entrance, and entered the temple grounds.

Before we even got to the temple ruins themselves, another feature of the site presented itself:  it is a sanctuary of sorts for stray dogs and cats.  There were bedding areas and portable dog houses, bowls of water and food, and half a dozen decently well-fed creatures of the canine and feline disposition lounging, strolling, sleeping, and generally ignoring us in favor of nature appreciation.  I loved this about the place and the Athenians!

The temple itself was marvelous in the pure sense of that word.  It was a marvel.  How in the world did they build those columns so very high, even considering the fact that each one is a series of stacked segments?  They’re still enormous!  Started in the 6th century BC and not completed until the 2nd AD (Sacred Destinations.com), the temple was more magnificent in its time (as one might expect), with one hundred and four 17m high columns laid out in a rectangle; now there are just fifteen still standing, and the one that has fallen over sometime in the 180 years has been left to lie across the lawn like a giant’s spine.  (I wasn't sure until I looked it up when it fell [1852], but I knew it was there in the 1830’s—the same time period that Greece reclaimed its independence from Turkish control—because one of the informational plaques on site shows a painting from that time period with all 16 columns still standing.) For those who are interested in Doric vs Ionic vs Corinthian, these are the latter.

This year, when I had the opportunity to go back and visit with students, it was different—the surprise was gone—but the pleasure in the aesthetics and the expansive, peaceful space was still quite the same.  

~Valerie Bijur Carlson