“Life is a journey, not a destination; there are no mistakes, just chances we’ve taken.”
— India.Arie
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Around Every Corner
Go-Day 15 to 22, February 6, 2019 to February 13
Lessons Learned: There are a lot of stray dogs and cats here in Greece. I mean a bunch, like on every corner, in every town, in the country, at your hotel, and outside of the temples. But, they aren’t the wild dogs or feral cats that you find in the states. These things are more like community pets. The locals feed them, pet them and I think give them a place to sleep at night, and maybe even get them vet care. Stray cats will come up and sit in your lap if you let them, and the dogs all seem to have the temperament of an old Labrador Retriever. All these animals look well fed and cared for, just like at your crazy Aunt Sadie’s house and her 6 cats. Very strange. I would worry about rabies or distemper or some other disease, but that doesn’t seem to be a common worry here.
Regrets: None to report today.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus (UNESCO site)
Sunday, Feb. 10. Needing new classical challenges, Ellen (not to be confused with Helen) and I drove up the road about half an hour to the Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus. Epidaurus in legend was the birthplace of Apollo‘s son Asclepius the healer. Epidaurus was known for its sanctuary situated about five miles (8 km) outside the town, and is mostly know for its open air amplitheater, which is still in use today.
Stunning is my description of this place. We spent hours wandering around and looking at all the artifacts. The pictures don’t do justice to this place or the surrounding valley.
This spot, which I hadn’t heard of, was a Mycenaean sanctuary dedicated to a healing god stands on the Kynortion hill, northeast of an ancient theater about 15 kilometers from our apartment. Asklepios is the god of medicine in ancient Greek mythology (named Vediovis by Romans). He was also known as Imhotep by the Egyptians. Asclepius represented the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters were:
- Hygieia (“Hygiene”, the goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation)
- Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness),
- Aceso (the goddess of the healing process)
- Aglaea (the goddess of the glow of good health)
- Panacea (the goddess of universal remedy)
You think I made that up? Not so, go look it up. So of course, being a nurse, we had to go visit this place. It was founded in the sixteenth century BC over the remains of a settlement of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2800-1800 BC), and functioned until the eleventh century BC. Unlike other sanctuaries of this period, it was really, really big. You can’t see this site in one hour and hop back on the bus (though we watched 3 or 4 bus-loads of tourist do exactly that).
Ellen was especially fond of this archeological site because the surrounding mountains are beautiful and it is incredibly serene and peaceful. The rod of Asclepius, a snake-entwined staff, remains the symbol of medicine today.
In Greek legend, Asclepius was the son of Apollo, either by Coronis (the goddess of Mexican beer), daughter of Phlegyas (goddess of Acid Indigestion) or by Arsinoe (goddess of Foul Language), and daughter of Leucippus (God of Star Trek Romulan actors). He was the brother of Eriopis (God of Bad Personal Hygeine).
Asclepius was married to Epione (an early Greek reality program starlet), with whom he had five daughters: Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso, and Aglaea, and three sons: Nick, Nick II and Telesphoros (God of Mobile Telephones). He also sired a son, Aratus (god of rodents), with Aristodama (Part-time actress in the Housewives of Ancient Athens). I’m not sure how much medicine Asclepius actually practiced (as he was always busy chasing skirt), much like Dr. Oz (I mean practicing medicine, not chasing skirt).
I’ll let the pictures tell the story, it was a beautiful day and we spent half the day at the ruins. This is a site you can’t miss in Greece. The site contained a Classical temple, an altar of Apollo, the Great Stoa (a classical portico or roofed colonnade), the priests’ residence (huge), a Greek Bath House, a Roman Bath House (still has mosaic tile on the floor), the Temenos of the Muses (a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god), the Temple of Asklepios, the Abaton (Greek name for a hospital), the Tholos (a round government building), the theater (seats over 14,000 and is still in use today), the stadium, the Banquet Hall and a hotel. I told you this place was really large. They think there was a settlement here as far back as 2800 BC, but it really was rocking from 1600 to 1200 BC. The site fell into disrepair under Roman and Ottoman management and was finally abandoned after an earthquake in 521 AD…..now that’s a long time for an entertainment center to be around.