Category: Greece

Goats and Delphi’s Oracle

Delphi, Greece

While enjoying the view on the hotel balcony, I hear the rhythmic sound of bells, as if someone is playing music nearby. But when I listen more closely, I realize that the sound is coming from down the hill. I lean out over the rail to determine the origin of this mysterious music. Strangely, it’s a herd of goats. The clinks and clanks come from the bells around their necks as they walk. According to legend, goats found the site that became Delphi’s Oracle. Their goatherd noticed them bleating strangely and gamboling about. The goatherd himself also received the manic enthusiasm when he approached a crevice that emitted a fragrant gas. It smelled like the sweetest and most expensive perfume.

Sunset at Delphi Over Looking the Pleistos Valley

As we pull into town, I can tell that Delphi is different than any place I have been before. The town clings to the side of the mountain and is defined by narrow, shop-lined streets terraced one above the other. Long staircases climb the mountain between streets, providing shortcuts for pedestrians and additional sidewalks for tavernas. Young people, most likely college students on a field trip, cluster in small groups, giggling and running about.

The first hotel we walk into, Hotel Athena, has a room available with a view overlooking the valley. I throw my backpack on a bed and step outside on our balcony, which seems to hang over the gorge. The sight is breathtaking, so I reach for my supplies and attempt to paint the Pleistos with the sun setting in the background. I’m aware that I’ll never capture its vastness or presence, but maybe I can reproduce some of the sunset’s colors.

Cafe at Mycenae

As we exit the hotel, the evening sunset splashes brilliant orange across the sky and paints the landscape in a warm glow. The street is still devoid of life, but a little farther on, we see two groups of diners on the patio of a restaurant. A host seats us near the other patrons, and we enjoy an Italian dinner of pasta, salad, and crusty bread while discussing our travel plans. Tomorrow is a big day for us since Mycenae is one of our more anticipated stops. We’ll walk amongst the ancient ruins and learn about the Mycenaean culture that flourished here.

Lion Gate at Mycenae

We pay our fee at Mycenae’s entrance and are immediately confronted with the magnificent stone entryway called the Lion Gate. It was built circa 1250 BC, a few decades before the Trojan War. Mycenae at that time was the kingdom of Agamemnon, the general who led the Greek forces against Troy. He sacrificed his daughter, Iphigeneia, to the goddess Artemis to get favorable winds to sail to Troy, and when he returned home, his wife, Klytemnestra, killed him for it. While he was at his bath, she wrapped him in royal robes and struck him three times with an ax.

At the entrance to Mycenae, two sandstone lions stand above the gate itself. Both lions are headless now, but in antiquity they stood face to face. I position my portable chair beside the walkway. The wind has calmed enough now that I’m ready to get started. I’m choosing to paint the Lion Gate because, with its headless lions, it’s the most legendary and distinguishing aspect of the site. I’m lucky to have brought my watercolor Moleskine sketchbook because its landscape format is perfect to capture both the gate and the walls forming this extended view. In this drawing, I shorten the wall to the right, fitting the whole scene onto the page, including the cypress tree. Tightening the drawing in this way will, I hope, render it visually stronger, and with the help of the tree, balance the weight of the Lion Gate on the left.

Mycenae’s Ancient Ruins

Standing outside Mycenae’s ancient ruins, hands in our pockets and our backs to the wind, we wait for the gate to open. The sky is clear this morning, but I fear the weather might be a nuisance while painting. I’m still tired too. Last night around midnight, a motorcycle raced up and down the street in front of the hotel, blaring its exhaust until I thought the sound would blow out the windows of the hotel. Then a car joined in the fun, and together they raced up and down the otherwise deserted and tranquil street. I was too tired to get up and look out into the darkness, and eventually, once the clatter stopped, I fell back asleep.

Hotel Klytemnestra

Excerpt from my book “The Artist on the Road”:

From Eleusis, we travel west along the Isthmus of Corinth, pass over the Corinth canal, and on to the Peloponnese peninsula, which is a huge landmass shaped like a maple leaf. After exiting the main highway, we make a few wrong turns and end up in the middle of nowhere. Using our map, we negotiate the back roads and finally make it to Mykines, the town closest to the ruins of Mycenae, late in the afternoon. The sun, having sunk low in the sky, casts lengthy shadows across the town’s deserted streets. There’s not a person in sight. The businesses look closed too. What a mysterious place. Have we landed on Mars? Where are all the people? But as we pull into the parking lot of Hotel Klytemnestra, a jolly, grey-haired man steps out to welcome us and relieves my fears of Martians. My dad stayed at this family-run hotel sixteen years ago, and it appears that little has changed.

The Mysteries of Eleusis

Excerpt from my book “The Artist on the Road”:

…we finally make our way to Eleusis, but it will close earlier than we expected, at 3 pm, so we only have an hour and a half. Scouring the site by foot, I’m having difficultly finding a good subject to draw. Overall, the site isn’t a bad place to sketch, but there isn’t a tall structure like a temple for example, to compose a picture around. Most of the site contains ruins only a couple of feet high. I’m beginning to think Athens spoiled me. Finally, I choose a place near the entrance. At this angle, I have architectural ruins in the foreground with the entrance to the Underworld, a grotto, in the background.

While I start blocking in the larger shapes on my paper, my dad checks in, and reminds me of the mythology of Eleusis. It was here in primordial time that Hades sprang from the ground in his horse-drawn carriage to kidnap Persephone, the daughter of divine Demeter, taking her through the Gates of Hades (the grotto) and into to the Underworld to serve as its Mistress. Eleusis was also the site of the ancient Mysteries, during which Demeter’s search for her kidnaped daughter was reenacted. Every fall at this time of year, as many as a thousand people from all over the ancient world were initiated into the Mysteries. During the ceremony, the initiates witnessed an epiphany exposed by a blinding flash of light. The essence of the epiphany was kept secret under punishment of death, and even today remains unknown. Once initiated, and later reaching the end of their mortal lives, they passed into the Elysian Fields, where they lived out eternity in Persephone’s care and in the presence of the gods.

Just before I finish my painting, a guard tells us that the site is closing in a few minutes. What a quick hour and a half. I have just enough time to gather my belongings and drag them outside the gate. Once there, I put the finishing touches on my painting, and use a cardboard folder as a fan to hasten the drying time. Luckily, I’m traveling with two watercolor blocks so that while one painting is drying, I can start a new one. If I could only find the time to paint two paintings instead of one at each location, I’d be doing great. But today is not that day since we are already back on the road and headed to our next destination, Mycenae.