55 Rows to the Top
and I Can Still Hear a Coin Drop
Lauren Miller
2-14-2013
To begin
our day, there were a few technical difficulties with renting the car and van,
so we did not get as early as start as we would have liked. It was raining and
cold for the second day in a row, so everyone was bundled up in their warmest
clothing. We each carried one backpack to the car, while each girl also brought
a purse with her schoolbooks in it. In our 7-passenger van and 5-person car, we
all headed out of the city of Athens. We were now in the chaotic, fast-paced
traffic that we usually watched from the sidewalks while walking to our
destinations. On these streets it is a necessity to be aggressive behind the
wheel. About an hour into our drive we stopped to for a bite to eat. We had
juicy, perfectly seasoned souvalkis at a small rest stop. After lunch, we went
to look at a canal that was carved in ancient times to allow passing boats to travel
through. This canal is called the Isthmos Canal Corinth. The waters were a deep
blue and looked refreshing, although the temperature outside was only in the
50s! As we continued our drive through the mountains, we were able to look over
the railings and see the brown and red roofed houses through the grey fog that
was covering them. On the side of the roads we passed what looked like
miniature churches. Each one is about three feet tall with beautiful carvings
of crosses, flowers, and other symbols that were probably meaningful to the
family members.. These monuments are for family members who have been killed in
car accidents- similar to the crosses that we place on the side of our roads.
Also along the road, there were thousands of olive trees. The olive trees
reminded me of old people, the way their trunks looked wrinkly and the branches
hung low to the ground. Ioanna informed us that in December, the season of
olives, the harvesters lay nets below all the trees and use a rake to rustle
the olives out of the trees. In between the trees, coming down the mountain, I
could see both black and white sheep roaming; each one looked like it needed a
bath.
When we
arrived at the Epidavros Theatre site, Ioanna explained the history of the
theatre. The theatre was dedicated to Asklepios, the God of Healing. In the
shape of a half moon, the theatre seats about 17,000 people in 55 rows. When we
were walking into the theatre, Ioanna told us to make our way to the top of the
stands. The class spread out in different sections and Ioanna began to test the
sounds that we had all heard such interesting stories about. The first test was
to drop a coin; I was standing at the top of the stands and it was as if I had
dropped the coin myself. The second test was to rip a piece of paper. From the
top it sounded like my teacher was ripping a piece of paper at her desk in the
front of the room. The way the sound was traveling was mind baffling to me. When
Ioanna was talking to us from center stage, she would talk in her normal,
southern accented voice; she did not raise it at all. I felt as though she was
sitting beside me and we were having a conversation. Right before we left,
Ioanna said there was one more test and she wanted us to hear. She sang a hymn;
it came from an old Greek song about a man who kissed a woman and fell in love
with her. Because of this, the community cut off his arm and he confessed that
he would have his other arm cut off for one more kiss. What a perfect love
story for Valentine’s Day, right?!?! The seating in the theatre was made out of
limestone, which is what reflects the sounds and allows it to echo. The
limestone also absorbs the sounds of anything else occurring in the stands so
that the center stage is always the loudest. To this day, experts, specialists,
and engineers have not figured out how the ancient Greeks were able to create
such an extraordinary acoustical space. Each summer, the theatre holds a
weekend of concerts for actors and actresses to come reenact ancient plays that
were once performed on the stage.
Afterwards,
in the museum, we saw beautifully sculptured designs that were on various
buildings located around the site. One sculpture we viewed was a piece from a
ceiling that had different types of flowers; each pedal was engraved very specifically.
They were very elegant. In the museum we saw some of the first medical
instruments that we used for healing of wounds and limbs, other sicknesses that
would come about among the people, and they were also the instruments that set
the standards for today. These
instruments looked fragile as if they would break and crumble into pieces if I
were to pick on of them up. They were also very, very tiny.
In addition
to the theatre, Epidavros also has ruins of a restaurant, a hotel, an athletic
site, and a hospital. At the restaurant, it was believed that when a customer
sat down to have dinner, God would be present at the table as well while they
were eating dinner. At the athletic site – which is still being excavated! - there
were competitions held including the Olympic games. The only event that would
take place here was male races. All runners would always run naked.
When we
returned to Nafplios, we had dinner at a tavern; the walls were covered with
front pages of old Playbills featuring famous plays, actors and actresses that
had performed at the Epidavros. Ioanna ordered multiple different Greek
appetizers for us all to share. We drank wine, tasted many new, interesting
flavors of food such as a spicy cheese dip, eggplant salad, zucchini cheese
balls, and many more! We enthusiastically talked with each other for almost
three hours about the Epidavros, the castle climbing we would be doing in the
next couple of days, and the couples around us celebrating Valentine’s Day.
After dinner, we left to get gelato at a famous gelateria named “Antica Gelateria
di Roma” and called it a night!
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