Mycenae + Epidaurus: theater as history, theater as healing.

From our lovely abode at the Byron Hotel in Nafplio Joan and we three ventured out to two ancient sites: Mycenae and Epidaurus.

Mycenae:

Once thought the stuff only of legend and theatrical storytelling, the castle where Agamenon and Clytemnestra played out their bloody family drama actually exists.

It was excavated by a polylingual, wealthy, armchair historian turned archeologist, named Heinrich Schliemann in the late 1800s.

3,300 years old (!), the site stands high between two peaks over looking olive and orange groves with the Aegean in the distance.

We stood where Clytemnestra herself presumably stood watching for Agememnon’s return from the sea, mourning the daughter he sacrificed and plotting his death.

The museum was full of artifacts designed for the worship of pre-Olympian goddesses.

Apparently May is the month when every Greek middle and high school gets a few days off to visit archeological sites. Mycenae was literally crawling with shouting, giggling, heavilyperfumed, hair flipping, phone texting, roughhousing, field trip crazed Greek teens. Willa Marie was aghast. Our guide for the day calls it the ‘invasion of the barbarians’.

Epidaurus

Home to the most well preserved of the Ancient Greek theaters. It’s stunning. The amphitheater seats 14,000 and is still used for performances every summer.

When you stand center stage you can be heard at the top row with only the slightest projection and as a performer it sounds as if your own voice is in stereo in your ears.

Here’s Willa Marie performing. Audio on our phone doesn’t truly do the the audio engineering justice but you get the idea.

The site was home to the cult of Asklepios god of healing and doctors. People traveled to the site to be healed from as far away as Ancient Rome.

At sites dedicated to Asklepios around Greece theaters and athletic stadiums are standard because it was believed that exercise and art and laughter were key to healing.

He’s my new favorite Greek god: human son of Apollo he was hated by Hades (because he was healing so many people that the underworld was depopulated) and so killed by Zeus to appease his brother. Apollo objected and so Zeus made him a god.

Gods rise, gods fall, people sicken, people heal, people sit, people stand, people applaud.