My Trip to Greece -- Day 5

Monday, 15 March 2004

On Monday, we left bright and early for a three-day tour. We stopped at the Corinth canal.

Our next stop was the Sanctuary of Asklepios at ancient Epidaurus, the most celebrated healing center of the ancient world. Asklepios, a son of Apollo, was a mortal physician to whom Zeus gave immortality, in the form of a constellation, after his death. He was usually depicted holding a staff and with a dog and a serpant -- symbols of wisdom. The amphitheatre at Epidaurus is famous for its nearly perfect acoustics. Built around the third centure B.C., it is the best preserved ancient theatre in Greece and is still in use today.

Inside the museum at Epidaurus are the remains of some marble statues. There is also a plaster cast of the statue of the god Asklepios (the god of healing), represented standing with the sacred snake curling up on his stick. The original is in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The other photos are of a reconstruction of part of the entablature of the Propylaia in Athens, a copy of a finial from either the Temple of Artemis or the Tholos (a circular building where activities of the cult of Asklepios took place), and a Corinthian capital found in a fill below the Tholos and considered to be a model of the capitals of the Tholos.

The next stop was Mycenae, the home of Agememnon. The pictures are of the city ruins, Kim at the Lion's Gate, and Kim from inside the upper part of the ruins on a ledge.