Report:

Classics in Greece: Summer, 2005

University of Arkansas

(Click Here for a Text-Only version of this report)

U of A teachers Daniel Levine (Classical Studies) and George Paulson (Modern Greek) recently returned from a four-week study tour in Greece with 21 undergraduate students, each of whom earned six credit hours for attending pre-trip classes, researching and presenting two site reports, and writing two term papers. Honors students wrote detailed travel journals.

"This is not a vacation," Levine said. "Our students spent twelve hours every day learning about the country: its history, art, culture, cuisine, topography, language and literature." Every day contained healthy doses of hiking, visits to museums, archaeological sites, and historic battlefields, such as Chaironeia and Marathon. "We spent a lot of time in the sun, albeit in some great locations, such as Boeotian Orchomenos, at the sanctuary of the Graces."

Professors Levine and Paulson lectured on every period in Greek history, and student reports covered every era, from Minoan and Mycenaean bronze age palaces and art, to classical temples, shrines, and fortifications, to the 20th century Greek civil war and the 21st century tourist industry, modern city planning (or lack thereof) in Athens, the Cyprus problem, and political relations between Greece and Turkey.

"Though this is billed as a 'Classics' program, in reality the students get a view of the entire spectrum of Greek history," Levine said. "It does not make sense to visit a country and ignore most of what is around you." For this reason, students signed up for courses both in Classical Studies and European Studies, and all participants learned about Greek art and history from every angle.

The itinerary included Greek and Roman monuments in Athens and its major museums, the exhibit halls and archaeological sites on the island of Santorini (including a boat tour of the volcanic islands off its coast), Crete's Minoan palaces, churches, museums, and mountains, with a day-long hike down the Samaria Gorge (Europe's longest). Several students were treated to a rare glimpse of the endangered and elusive Cretan wild ibex, or "kri-kri".

Other longer hikes included the trek up Acrocorinth for spectacular views of the isthmus joining the Peloponnese to the mainland, and a hike to the remote cave of Pan and the Nymphs on Mt. Parnassus, where students found an inscription to Pan and the Nymphs, some astragaloi (knucklebone offerings) and a miniature terra cotta statue head, which we donated to the Delphi Museum.

Exploring in the Corycian Cave:

John Schellhase Photo

Finding the inscription in the cave:

John Schellhase Photo

The knucklebone and the terra cotta head:

John Schellhase Photo

On the mainland, students explored the ruins of ancient Corinth, Epidaurus, Sparta, Mycenae, Messene, Pylos, Olympia, Delphi, Marathon, and Sounion. They spent a night on the island of Euboea and visited Eretreia's archaeological museum there. At the site of the Amphiareion at Oropos, we found an inscription bearing the name of Caesar's nemesis Marcus Brutus.

Students studied ancient temples, stadiums, gymnasiums, water sources, oracles, healing shrines, a medieval Byzantine monastery, Venetian and Frankish fortresses, a restored synagogue, inscriptions (ancient and modern), the history of Greek wine and olive oil production, with a visit to the newly-opened Olive Oil Museum (in Sparta). We visited the recently re-created full-size and operational ancient Greek trireme (warship) "Olympias," and in addition to a student report there, students got a tour from a Greek naval officer. We had two student reports in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first Modern Olympics (1896), and a venue in the 2004 Olympics.

Greece is a land of many sea coasts, which afforded the group many opportunities to swim, when schedule and weather allowed (we encountered a rather rainy spring, and thus missed several swimming opportunities).

Our trip had the usual amount of adventures, such as when our bus could not pass through a narrow street at Eleusis, due to an illegally parked vehicle. The local police had no solution, so several of our students simply picked up the car and moved it out of the way: Razorback Power in action. We also noted that you cannot say "RAZORBACK" without saying "ZORBA." In fact, during the tour several students read Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (whose grave we visited on the battlements of Irakleion, Crete).

Students sampled Greek cuisine, from tzatziki (yoghurt-cucumber dip) to katziki (goat), and many of them returned to Arkansas with cook books, to attempt to re-create their gustatory experiences.

We had excellent support from the University of Arkansas Office of Study Abroad, whose staff profesionally took care of all the details of arranging the trip, in concert with our Greek travel agents at Educational Tours. We strongly recommend this agency and its directors, Dimitri Cocconi and his daughter Thalia.

Professor Levine has led eight study tours in Greece, and said that this group of students was the most congenial he has ever encountered: "Everybody was everybody's friend. This group of Arkansas students had an esprit de corps second to none. It was a pleasure and an honor to work with them."

Photographs (other than John Schellhase's) by Doralyn Jasmine Merced Ownbey, c. 2005. For her complete photographic collection from the University of Arkansas Study Tour in Greece, visit her gallery: http://gallery.jazzhaven.com/Greece2005

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